SHANGHAI/TOKYO, July 24 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor's (7203.T) joint venture (JV) in China said on Monday that it has terminated early the contracts of about 1,000 dispatch workers, in a sign of pressure on automakers from a price war in the world's largest auto market. Toyota's JV in China, Guangzhou Toyota Motor Co, said in a statement to Reuters that it had prematurely terminated contracts for about 1,000 workers with labour services companies in light of recent production levels. The GAC Toyota factory has an annual output capacity of 1 million vehicles and employs around 19,000 people, according to its website. The production of Mitsubishi's new Outlander model remained suspended, Kato added, describing the conditions faced by the company in China as "severe". The company joined a price war started by Tesla in January and slashed the starting price for its bZ4X EV by 15% in February.

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Persons: Levin, bZ4X, Toyota's, Takao Kato, Kato, Tesla, Zhang Yan, Brenda Goh, Daniel Leussink, Mark Potter, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Toyota, JV, Guangzhou Automobile Group, Reuters, Toyota's JV, Guangzhou Toyota Motor, GAC Toyota, Mitsubishi Motors, GAC, China Association of Automobile Association, Thomson Locations: SHANGHAI, TOKYO, China, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tokyo