Toyota's strategy for EVs and PHVs: Joint EV development with Mazda

Aiming for PHV production in China in 2018 and to launch an EV in 2019

2017/09/07

Summary

In
August 2017, Toyota and Mazda
In August 2017, Toyota and Mazda entered into a business and capital alliance for EV joint development

  This report will cover Toyota's strategy for EVs and PHVs.

  In August 2017, Toyota and Mazda concluded an agreement for a business and capital alliance. Along with jointly developing EVs, the companies plan to build a joint venture assembly plant in the U.S. with a production capacity for 300,000 vehicles.

  The companies will jointly develop basic structural technology for EVs (hereinafter referred to as a platform), including the hardware and software, that can be used for everything from minicars to light trucks. The companies will develop vehicles based on their respective design languages, with Mazda reportedly planning to release its EV in 2019, and Toyota in 2020.

  Toyota focused on the development of FCVs as the best solution for green vehicles because the company took a dim view on the prospects of EVs gaining popularity in the near term due to range issues. However, as countries around the world are now rapidly strengthening regulations aimed at increasing the use of zero-emission vehicles, the company is making preparations to enable the speedy release of an EV, which are an alternative to FCVs for achieving market ready zero emission vehicles.

  Countries around the world are announcing plans to prohibit the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles to strengthen those for EVs. The U.K. and France announced that they will discontinue sales of vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines by 2040. India plans to do the same by 2030. VW, Daimler, and other automakers have announced plans to devote significant attention to their EV lineups and product structure.

  California, U.S. will strengthen Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV) Regulations starting from 2018 model year vehicles, and hybrid vehicles (HVs) are no longer treated as ZEV. The California Air Reserves Board (CARB) predicts that about 60 percent of vehicles that fall under the 2025MY ZEV regulations will be PHEVs (with the remainder to be EVs or FCVs). Together with newly developed EVs, PHVs (currently, the Prius Prime is the only Toyota model) will also play an important role in achieving ZEV regulation goals.

  In China, the government will require that a certain percentage of the production output of OEMs be new energy vehicles (NEVs: EVs and PHVs) from 2018 in order to expand the market. Like California, HVs are not treated as NEVs under the country's regulations. Toyota announced that it will introduce PHVs in the Chinese market in 2018. The automaker then plans to introduce EVs in 2019, ahead of other regions.

  In December 2016 Toyota launched the "EV Business Planning Department," an in-house venture company. The automaker will accelerate EV development through the advances achieved by this company and its partnership with Mazda.

Related Reports:
European automaker technology trends: Electric Vehicles (Nov. 2016)

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