FAW-Toyota, the joint venture between China's FAW Group and Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor, reported sales of 372,688 vehicles in 2008, surging by 129% over a year before, Shanghai Securities News reported today.

FAW Mazda is preparing for building a new plant, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2010 and will boost the carmaker's production capacity to 120,000 units, Beijing Morning Post said, citing Yu Hongjiang, general manager of FAW Mazda Sales Co.

Toyota Motor has included its good-selling RAV4 model in a series of SUV models of a Chinese venture's product lineup for the China market. The RAV4 SUV will be built by FAW Toyota and launched in the first half of 2009, said xinhuanet.com today.

On October 30, the signing ceremony of FAW-VW Chengdu project was held in Chengdu, which maps out FAW’s strategy of expanding its market to western areas with Chengdu as the center, West China City Daily said today.

Sichuan FAW Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (SFTM), a joint venture between Toyota Motor and China FAW Group, held a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday for its new, 4 billion yuan ($584 million) plant in Changchun city, Jilin Province, Reuters reported.

On October 11, Tianjin FAW said it will produce the company's first A-class car based on Toyota's ninth-generation Corolla platform. On October 18, FAW Car put its Hongqi Shengshi (HQ3) onto the market, and the next day the company launched its 2009 Besturn model and started construction of its second plant.

After a six-month warm-up, the new Bora, FAW-VW's all-new A-Class sedan, was finally launched onto the Chinese market on October 20, said xinhuanet.com today. The New Bora comes in eight 1.6L and 2.0L models, priced between 107,800 yuan ($15,800) and 143,800 yuan.

Tianjin FAW launched three models of its 2009 Weizhi car in Beijing on October 11. The three models include the Weizhi hatchback elite, sedan elite and sedan flagship editions, which are priced between 56,800 yuan ($8,320) and 68,800 yuan to meet the different demands of customers, said xinhuanet.com today.

FAW Group Corporation, a leading automaker in the country, saw its January-August sales rising 17.1% from the same period last year, reported Xinhua News Agency Wednesday.

The FAW Bus Co. Ltd., a bus subsidiary of FAW Group, plans to build a bus manufacturing base in Changchun, headquarters of FAW. Construction of the project will kick off in April 2009 and operation is scheduled for October next year, said xinhuanet.com today.

FAW-VW and Changan Ford Mazda,Volkswagen and Ford's respective joint venture in China, have cut the price of some of their models sold in China, leading a new round of price war amid overall market downturns, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The second plant of FAW-Volkswagen (FAW-VW) has began cutting jobs and the production of the already high-stockpiled Magoton and Sagitar cars to give way to the upcoming New Bora model, reported Beijing Times today.