Toyota Motor Corp. today announced a joint venture with Chinese firm BYD on electric vehicle research and deployment.
The new company will seek to take advantage of Toyota’s and BYD’s respective expertise on EV technology. The venture will be established in China by 2020.
“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,” Shigeki Terashi, Toyota executive vice president, said in a statement.
In recent weeks, Toyota has faced allegations of green washing, the practice of making a company seem more environmentally friendly than it really is (Climatewire, Nov. 1).
The allegations come after Toyota sided with the Trump administration in the legal fight over California’s vehicle emissions standards (Climatewire, Oct. 29).
BYD has moved aggressively to market its products in the United States, even as some lawmakers on Capitol Hill raise national security concerns about U.S. transit agencies purchasing buses from Chinese-connected companies (E&E News PM, Sept. 30).
“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,” Lian Yu-bo, BYD’s senior vice president, said in a statement.