Asia, Toyota | featured news

Toyota has surged back from a downturn following the natural disasters in Japan last year and is expecting to sell 23 percent more vehicles than it did in 2011.

Toyota over the weekend broke ground for a technical center near Shanghai that will prepare for shifting production to China of tightly guarded technology used in its hybrids and other alternative-energy vehicles—but not its latest technology.

Toyota Motor Co may slip to No. 3 in the automaker production rankings behind General Motors and Volkswagen due to Japan's earthquake and nuclear crisis, which slashed local output by almost two-thirds in March alone.

Toyota and Nissan they will resume production at all factories in Japan in mid-to-late April at about half their normal pace, joining Honda in an industrywide move to restart production halted by the March 11 earthquake.