Last year Toyota announced plans to deepen cooperation among its R&D centre in Jiangsu province and its two local joint ventures. One problem, representative of Toyota's broader woes, is that vehicles developed independently by joint venture partners are selling better than those produced with Toyota. For instance, FAW Group's Hongqi brand and GAC Group's Aion EV both outsell respective models from FAW Toyota Motor and GAC Toyota Motor. Toyota now intends to better incorporate the know-how of local partners in its cars. Currently, the same vehicle is produced at each of the two joint ventures and sold with a different design and company name - so-called "twinned vehicles". Going forward, production for each car will be consolidated at one of the joint ventures, two of the people said. The models will be made available at dealerships of both JVs. As Japanese automakers have been hit, so have Japanese parts suppliers with operations in China.