On Sunday, Nissan Motor announced it would be selling China-developed electric vehicles (EVs) globally, as it entered into an agreement with China’s top university to leverage its resources to perform advanced research and development on electrification of vehicles.

While in Beijing, Masashi Matsuyama, the president of Nissan Motor and President of Nissan China, said to reporters that the automaker was considering exporting to overseas markets the existing lineup of internal combustion engine vehicles as well as an upcoming line of pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars which were developed and manufactured in China.

He said that Nissan is looking to target the same markets being pursued by Chinese rivals such as BYD.

With this move, Nissan is joining other automakers such as Tesla, BMW, and Ford, which are expanding their exports of vehicles made in China in an effort to take advantage of the nation’s lower costs of production and increase the utilization of the nation’s manufacturing capacity of its factories.

Of Nissan’s worldwide sales of about 2.8 million automobiles, China accounted for just over 20 percent of those sales over the first ten months of the year. That was down from over one third of total sales during the same period one year ago.

This year, Japanese carmakers have faced major headwinds with regard to making sales in China, the biggest auto-market in the world, as domestically made brands have soared in popularity, and the tremendous price competition among electric vehicles as the population rapidly shifts over to electrification as intensified.

Nissan is in the process of setting up a joint research center with Tsinghua University, China’s top university, to open next year, which will focus on the development of EV technology, including charging infrastructure and battery recycling.

Makoto Uchida, President and Chief Executive of Nissan said in a statement, “We hope that this collaboration will help us gain a deeper understanding of the Chinese market and develop strategies that better meet the needs of customers in China.”

The new research center will be an extension of joint research efforts which have been ongoing between Nissan and Tsinghua since 2016,  focusing on autonomous driving technology and intelligent mobility.