Toyota and BMW have formally announced a new partnership in which the companies will jointly develop lithium-ion batteries and BMW will also supply diesel engines to Toyota in Europe.
The automakers signed a memorandum of understanding at the Tokyo Auto Show today for a mid- to long-term collaboration on next-generation environmental-technology projects.
“Fundamentally we are both engineering companies, so in many aspects we have found we speak the same language, and it is interesting to see what can be achieved when Japanese engineering meets European engineering and when the cooperation really works,” said Didier LeRoy, CEO of Toyota’s European operations.
The deal will have BMW supplying Toyota with 1.6- and 2.0-liter diesel engines for its European-market vehicles starting in 2014. Toyota President Akio Toyota had previously stated that the company would eschew diesel engines in favor of hybrid technology in the old country so as not to get “lost in the crowd.” The reversal of strategy follows a decline in Toyota’s market share in Europe, where over 50 percent of new vehicles are sold with diesel engines.
As part of a previous agreement, Toyota supplied BMW with 1.6-liter diesel engines for use in MINI products between 2002 and 2005.
The batteries end of the agreement has the potential to reduce development costs and strengthen the companies’ future electric and hybrid vehicles.
“We think that this collaboration will allow for development of next-generation batteries to be done faster and to a higher level,” said Takeshi Uchiyamada, Executive Vice President of Toyota.
The partnership will not affect BMW’s current collaboration with PSA/Peugeot-Citroen to develop hybrid systems for compact cars.
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