Toyota to launch China-made Corolla, Levin hybrids in 2015

A Toyota Levin car is displayed at the 2014 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition in Beijing, April 20, 2014. [Photo by Yu Hongyan/chinadaily.com.cn]

Toyota, playing catchup to rivals such as Volkswagen, General Motors, Hyundai and Nissan Motor Co in China, aims to become the third best-selling carmaker in China and surpass Nissan in the future, he said.

To do so, Toyota will introduce 15 new models in the country by end-2017, he said. China now accounts for about 10 percent of Toyota's global sales.

In 2013, Toyota sold 917,000 vehicles in China, up 9 percent from a year earlier, recovering from a sales plunge after September 2012 due to a diplomatic row between Japan and China over a set of isles. Its market share was at around 5 percent.

It sold around 20,400 hybrid vehicles in China in 2013, up from just 7,900 in 2012.

If Toyota hits its sales target of 1.1 million vehicles or more this year, it would be meeting the objective of selling 1 million vehicles a year in China four years later than initially planned.

Toyota runs joint ventures in China with China FAW Group Corp and Guangzhou Automobile Group.

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