Toyota lists multiple moves, including renaming its R&D base in China, consolidating R&D resources at three joint ventures, and betting on autonomous driving technology.

China's automobile market is growing at an unprecedented pace, and Toyota will make every effort in the Chinese market to rapidly develop and deliver products that satisfy Chinese customers and are competitive by promoting local R&D centered on IEM by Toyota, Tatsuro Ueda, Toyota's CEO in charge of the China region, said.

The results of R&D and lessons learned in China will be utilized not only in the Chinese market, but also in the global market, Ueda said.

This is Toyota's latest move in China, as Japanese carmakers fall behind in the country's fast-growing EV market.

GAC Toyota has terminated the contracts of about 1,000 dispatched workers early and offered them compensation, Reuters said in a report last week.

In a response to local media outlet Shanghai Securities News, GAC Toyota said the move was made in light of the current situation because of fierce competition in the market.

In the first half of the year, GAC Toyota's retail sales were 429,662 units, down 5.2 percent from the same period last year, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

FAW Toyota sold 368,283 vehicles in the first half of the year, up 4.8 percent from a year earlier.

China's retail auto sales in the first half of the year were 9.53 million units, up 2.93 percent year-on-year. A total of 3.09 million new energy vehicles (NEVs) were sold in the first half of the year, up 37.58 percent year-on-year.

Toyota's JV with GAC cuts about 1,000 jobs as Japanese carmakers fall behind in China's EV sector