Toyota to build Lexus electric SUV in Shanghai from late 2027, starting at 1,000 units a month

Toyota will begin producing a Lexus battery-electric SUV at its wholly owned Shanghai plant in the second half of 2027, starting with roughly 1,000 vehicles per month, according to a Nikkei report. That pace annualizes to about 12,000 units — only around 12% of the site's planned 100,000-unit capacity — pointing to a deliberately gradual ramp-up before output rises to the tens of thousands annually from 2028.

The model will use gigacasting, which forms multiple aluminum body sections in a single press to cut part counts and assembly steps. Toyota expects the process to shave as much as 20% off the weight of some body structures, add a few percentage points of range per charge, and improve both rigidity and build speed.

If it goes ahead, the plan would mark the first time Toyota builds a latest-generation EV outside Japan before producing it at home. Nikkei reports the company shelved a sleeker next-generation EV coupe it had been developing in Japan in spring 2026 and redirected its efforts toward SUVs, a body style in stronger demand among Chinese consumers — a sign of how local preferences are shaping its product planning.

The plant, in Shanghai's southwestern Jinshan district, broke ground in June 2025 and was then expected to be finished in August 2026. Toyota said in February 2025 it would set up a wholly owned Shanghai company to develop and build Lexus BEVs and batteries, a structure that would make Lexus the second foreign brand after Tesla to run a wholly owned vehicle plant in China.

The push comes as Toyota struggles in China, its third-largest market after the US and Japan. July sales there fell 24.3% year-on-year to 114,747 vehicles, while global sales slipped 5.3% to 912,683. In the first seven months of the year, China sales dropped 18.2% to 809,417 units.