Toyota And Subaru Strike Deal To Develop EV Platform For Cars And SUVs

Collaborations are hip this season, especially when it comes to electric vehicle projects.

Following yesterday’s announcement regarding the cooperation between BMW and Jaguar Land Rover on electric drive units, Toyota and Subaru have confirmed they would co-develop an EV platform.

The architecture will be dedicated to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for midsize and large passenger vehicles. The platform will also serve as a base for a C-segment BEV SUV model that will be sold under each company’s brand.

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

The carmakers will bring their strengths into the partnership such as Toyota’s electrification technologies and Subaru’s all-wheel-drive expertise, respectively. By combining their forces, the two companies “intend to take up the challenge of creating attractive products with appeal that only BEVs can offer.”

The BEV-dedicated platform that will be co-developed by Toyota and Subaru

The platform will underpin multiple vehicle types including C-segment and D-segment sedans and SUVs. Following the agreement, Subaru said it will now shift its existing BEV development resources to the new joint project. No further details about the common EV platform and the co-developed compact electric SUV are available for the moment.

At the moment, only Toyota has an electric vehicle in its lineup, the recently-unveiled C-HR EV (pictured). Also available as a rebadged Izoa EV, the electric crossover is a China-exclusive model, at least for the time being. However, Toyota has announced its intention to launch an electric vehicle in Europe in 2021 and chances are that model will be based on the C-HR as well.

As for Subaru, it lags way behind Toyota when it comes to electrification. The company has only one plug-in hybrid model in its lineup, the Crosstrek PHEV which uses Toyota know-how.