After signing an agreement in November 2019 to establish a joint venture, Chinese car brand BYD and Toyota have completed the registration of BYD Toyota EV Technology Co. Ltd. The new company will be involved in research and development of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and will have Toyota’s Hirohisa Kishi as Chairman and BYD’s Zhao Binggen will be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
The company will be operational from May 2020 and will have BYD and Toyota engineers working to develop BEVs that offer better performance for customers in China, utilizing the companies’ strengths. The focus of the company is to research and develop BEVs that are environment friendly, safe and intelligent. The companies are yet to detail the products but has confirmed the development of electric vehicle platform and related parts as other areas of business activities.
BYD recently unveiled a new battery named Blade, which claims to have raised the standard of safety for batteries. The Blade battery has been built to withstand extreme conditions of temperature and force, without exploding or emitting smoke and flames. The first application of the battery will be BYD’s Han EV, which the company states will have a cruising range of 605 km when it is launched in June 2020. It is engaged in talks with many global car companies to license the technology.
Toyota C-HR electric will become the brand’s first electric car in China
Toyota is pressing on with expanding its EV business from both current joint ventures, GAC-Toyota and FAW-Toyota. Two versions of the electric C-HR (Toyota C-HR and Toyota Izoa) are ready to launch this year which will be the first of 10 electric cars to follow from the ‘T’ brand in the first half of the decade. Toyota has no plans for the C-HR electric outside the Chinese market at this time, but that could change quickly when the company realizes the competition is pulling away and customers are interested in switching to EVs if there are decent options.
In India, BYD launched its first electric bus in February 2020 with a range of 200 km in a single charge. The 9-metre fully electric bus is produced and assembled locally and can be customised on request from the customers. BYD has also launched two electric vans in India last year.
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