Toyota and BYD have agreed to set up a joint company to research and develop battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
The new R&D company will work on designing and developing BEVs, including a new platform and its related parts. Toyota and BYD will each invest 50 percent of the capital needed to setup the new joint venture in China in 2020. The value of the venture was not disclosed. The two carmakers also said they planned to transfer engineers and the jobs currently involved in related R&D from their companies to the new joint venture.
“We aim to combine BYD’s strengths in development and competitiveness in the battery electric vehicle market with Toyota’s quality and safety technology to provide the best BEV products for the market demand and consumer affection as early as we can,” said BYD senior vice president, Lian Yu-bo.
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Toyota C-HR Electric and Toyota IZOA Electric pre-production prototypes for the Chinese market
Toyota executive vice president, Shigeki Terashi, added: “With the same goal to further promote the widespread use of electrified vehicles, we appreciate that BYD and Toyota can become ‘teammates’, able to put aside our rivalry and collaborate. We hope to further advance and expand both BYD and Toyota from the efforts of the new company with BYD.”
In July, Toyota and BYD said they would develop full-electric sedans and SUVs which would go on sale in China under the Toyota brand before 2025. The first model will launch next year and will be based on the C-HR crossover. The Toyota-BYD joint venture will develop BEVs specifically for the Chinese market where the companies want to further promote the widespread adoption of such vehicles as they “aim to contribute toward environmental improvement.”
Toyota said in June that it aimed to get half of its global sales from electrified vehicles, including gasoline hybrids, by 2025 – five years ahead of schedule.