The two Japanese carmakers have signed an agreement with Denso to establish a new company that will focus on research and development in order to enter the electric car market.
A wholly Japanese joint venture with the goal of going electric: this is the outcome of the agreement signed at the end of last September by Toyota, Mazda and Denso (an automotive components supplier). The three brands have decided to create a third company, EV Common Architecture Spirit Corporation, staffed by the best engineers selected from each organisation, who will oversee the implementation of electric vehicle technology development projects.
The strategic alliance arose from the need to bring an ever-growing number of increasingly efficient electric cars to market, as many countries are deciding to ban petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040 onwards in order to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions responsible for the greenhouse effect. Alongside the hydrogen cars in which Toyota (a leader in hybrid technology) places great faith, electric vehicles will therefore be one of the possible alternatives for road mobility. By leveraging each company's strengths, pooling capabilities and know-how, and committing equal amounts of resources, the intention is to develop an electric range covering a variety of car types — from city cars to family cars, from SUVs to light trucks — so as to respond quickly and flexibly to every need.
The group will work in several phases: first, the characteristics that define the most efficient performance of electric vehicles will be identified at the level of individual components and then of the car as a whole; the process will then move on to component installation and vehicle performance verification; finally, the efficiency of each vehicle category will be analysed. Mazda would like to bring its first electric car to market in 2019, while Toyota aims to commercialise electric vehicles in China as well within the next five years. This is not the first time Mazda and Toyota have collaborated: the two carmakers formed a long-term partnership in 2015 to exchange products and technologies, and another last summer for the creation of a new plant in the United States with a capacity of 300,000 vehicles a year and 4,000 new jobs.
