Toyota Expands Partnerships in Mobility Service Business and Electrification

Toyota has been working on expanding partnerships in order to become a next-gen mobility company. In 2020, the company engaged in a wide variety of business activities to establish and strengthen the information infrastructure for smart cities and mobility services. For instance, in March 2020, Toyota and NTT entered into a memorandum of understanding regarding a business and capital alliance upon the creation of Woven City (Susono, SHIZUOKA), which is scheduled to start construction in February 2021. They will jointly build and operate the “Smart City Platform” as a core foundation. With an attempt to create the future mobility linked to social infrastructures, Toyota has been calling for partners. As of November 2020, the company received more than 3,000 applicants from individuals and corporations that are willing to become partners in the Woven City project. Also, Toyota has expanded a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to further develop the Mobility Service Platform (MSPF) in August 2020 and strengthened the alliance with KDDI in October 2020.

Toyota emphasizes expanding business partnerships to establish new business models in terms of promoting EVs. In 2020, the company also expanded alliances and partnerships in the electrification business. In Japan, Toyota launched a joint venture, Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, with Panasonic in April 2020, which secures a supply system for vehicle batteries. In July 2020, Toyota announced to invest in BluE Nexus, aiming to strengthen the competitiveness and sales system of EV-related products. In China, Toyota and BYD established an EV-related joint venture BYD TOYOTA EV TECHNOLOGY in April 2020. They intend to boost EV development and promotion by combining BYD’s development capabilities and Toyota’s strengths in quality and safety.