FAW Toyota's Fengyue production site in Jilin's capital of Changchun will resume operation this July, the Beijing Morning Post reported today. The joint venture is currently working on a project to expand the site's production capability to 100,000 vehicles.

Ensuring its production capability is enough to deal with unforeseen events, such as the earthquake in Japan early last year, is a key priority for FAW Toyota. According to Tian Congming, senior vice president for FAW Toyota's sales division, the JV has set its sales target at 600,000 units this year. However, at the moment the JV only possesses four factories with a combined production capability of 440,000 vehicles. As a result, there is quite a bit of pressure to get the Changchun factory working as soon as possible.

After the expansion project is completed, the site, which was originally responsible for production of Land Cruiser SUV, will begin manufacturing the Corolla (pictured above). The site will move on to producing the RAV4 (pictured below) in the future. Some speculate the site's final production capability to be around 300,000 vehicles, making it one of the joint venture's most important assets.

In other news, Mr. Tian confirmed that FAW Toyota can produce up to 3,000 Prius hybrids a year. The JV will continue to monitor the sales performance of the newly released hybrid.