Toyota and BYD have registered a joint venture that will develop and produce electric vehicles. The joint venture is called BYD Toyota EV Technology co. LTD, it will start operations in May 2020.
The cooperation agreement between the two concerns was signed on November 7, 2019, however, all the organizational formalities of the company were completed only by April 2. Executives have also been announced, with BYD's Zhao Binggen as CEO and Toyota's Hirohisa Kishi as chairman.
Commenting on the establishment of the new venture, Hirohisa Kishi said, "Working under the same roof, Toyota and BYD engineers will strive to create superior performance electric vehicles that will meet the needs of consumers in China."
Zhao Binggen also commented on the deal: “This joint venture will focus on research and development of advanced battery electric vehicles. They will use technologies from both China and Japan.”
The main office of the enterprise is located in Shenzhen, it will employ about 300 employees.
Both participants of the joint venture have solid experience in the creation of "green" cars. Toyota launched the hybrid Prius back in 1997 and has since sold more than 14 million electrified vehicles. At the same time, the Japanese company does not yet have much practice in creating pure electric vehicles. From the beginning of 2016 to the end of 2019, BYD was the world's largest manufacturer of electric trains, at the end of 2019 it was overtaken by American Tesla.
Other details have not yet been announced.
Toyota and BYD form a joint venture for the development and production of electric vehicles
