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Toyota signs a deal with BYD to develop batteries for electric cars

Toyota has yet to launch an all-electric vehicle, but they have been making a lot of deals to develop batteries for them and now they have one with BYD.

In January, Toyota announced a new wide-ranging battery partnership for electric vehicles.

A few months later, the Japanese automaker also reached a deal with Chinese giant CATL for an electric car battery partnership.

Now they are announcing a new joint company with Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD for the “research and development for battery electric vehicles (BEVs).”

They wrote about the new joint company:

“The new R&D company, which will work on designing and developing BEVs (including platform) and its related parts, is anticipated to be established in China in 2020, with BYD and Toyota to evenly share 50% of the total capital needed. Additionally, BYD and Toyota plan to staff the new company by transferring engineers and the jobs currently involved in related R&D from their respective companies.”

BYD senior vice president Lian Yu-bo commented on the announcement:

“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.”

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.”

The Japanese automaker has shunned all-electric vehicles and focused on ‘electrified’ by 2025.

For years, Toyota has focused on hybrids and hydrogen vehicles, but Toyota is finally starting to work on all-electric vehicles.

In 2017, Toyota announced a major expansion of its electric car plans with 10 new BEVs and all models to have electric motors.

The first of those BEVs is supposed to come to the market next year.

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