Toyota And Panasonic Join Forces To Develop Connected Services For Homes And Urban Development

Following their collaboration on EV battery technology, Toyota and Panasonic have now agreed to establish a joint venture in order to develop connected services for homes as well as urban development.

The two will set up a new company early next year, focusing on technology that could be used to offer personalized services in people’s homes, reliant on the accelerated deployment of IoT technologies in home appliances and equipment, as well as the evolution in mobility.

50/50 split

The Panasonic Group and Toyota will have the same ratio of equity in the joint venture, with the former transferring all of its shares in Panasonic Homes, Panasonic Engineering and Matsumura-gumi to this new enterprise.

“From here on out, information will link all items and services that support people’s daily lives thanks to the development of CASE, and considering this from a broad, community-level and society-level perspective that includes cars―in other words, working from the concept of ‘connected cities’―will become important. In order to realize this, I believe that it is important to have a spirit of cooperation with friends and allies, while sharing our goals regarding what kind of future we want to create,” said Toyota president, Akio Toyoda.

Also read: Toyota And Panasonic To Co-Develop Much Higher Capacity EV Batteries

“I want to take on the challenge of providing a new kind of lifestyle, based on the spirit of always wanting to be better and better, while bringing together the strengths of Toyota, with its vehicle business and connected business, and Panasonic, with its home appliance business, battery business, and IoT business, and enhancing our competitiveness, with the housing business of both companies as the core.”

The Japanese automaker is hoping that by expanding its network from manufacturing and selling vehicles to also providing new transportation and home energy services, it will continue to remain competitive while also growing its revenue streams.