Toyota Motor Corp. is mulling buying a ¥60 billion stake in Didi Chuxing Technology Co. Ltd. as it plans to establish a new mobility service in partnership with the Chinese ride-hailing giant, the Nikkei Asian Review reported May 29, without disclosing its source.

Didi Chuxing has previously worked with the Japanese carmaker as one of its initial launch partners for Toyota's e-Palette concept, a next-generation electric vehicle designed for mobility as a service, leveraging electrification, connected vehicles and automated driving technologies.

Toyota also joined a ride-sharing alliance formed by Didi Chuxing that use electric vehicles, the newspaper said.

According to the report, Toyota is promoting its mobility services by investing in global ride-hailing companies. It now reportedly aims to capture the industry's Chinese market.

A Toyota spokesperson told S&P Global Market Intelligence in an email that the company has "nothing to announce at this time." The spokesperson added, "We continue to evaluate our business strategy from a global perspective in areas of Connectivity, Autonomous, Sharing and Electrification to meet the future needs of our customers."

Meanwhile, Didi Chuxing did not immediately respond to Market Intelligence's request for comment.

The news comes less than a week after a report in The Japan Times said Toyota may share the self-driving system that it co-developed with Uber Technologies Inc. to its Asian rivals. The report said Toyota may also offer the system to Didi Chuxing if trade tensions ease between the U.S. and China.

In April, Toyota, along with DENSO Corp. and SoftBank Group Corp., invested $1 billion into Uber's Advanced Technologies Group. The Japanese auto company also agreed to invest $1 billion in Uber's Singapore-based ride-sharing rival, GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd., in June 2018.