Toyota and BYD join forces to design new electric cars for the Chinese market

The Chinese market is proving to be a good place to research, test and sell electrified cars. The trend in China is moving towards electrified cars, so we are going to have the chance to see many new models of this type over the coming years. To work on this front, Toyota and BYD will work together in a joint venture to develop electrified cars.

Both companies, Japanese and Chinese, will contribute 50% of the share capital of this venture, which will begin operating in 2020 and which aims to develop a new platform that both companies will share and that will serve as the basis for the new electrified models with battery power from both brands.

Among the goals of the two brands is the development of saloons and SUVs that will go on sale in China under the Toyota brand. Most of the models developed on the new platform will be on the market in 2025, although the first model developed jointly is expected to be based on the Toyota C-HR and arrive in 2020.

Battery electric cars are set to be the next step in mobility in China, where there are serious pollution problems and manufacturers want to offer more alternatives to traditional engines, reinforcing a market that can later reach the rest of the world, as happens with the Aiways U5, which will be the first Chinese electric SUV to arrive in Europe next year.

The two companies will work together, which suits Toyota very well, as it will share part of its engineering team with BYD to create these electrified vehicles. For the Japanese brand, 2025 marks the point at which it wants to have 50% of its global sales covered by electrified vehicles. The collaboration between the companies will help the Japanese reach that percentage ahead of schedule, since Toyota had originally aimed to reach that milestone in 2030.

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