TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor and smaller Japanese carmakers Subaru and Mazda Motor have each committed to developing new engines suitable for electrification, they said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
“With these motors, each of the three companies will aim to optimize integration with motors, batteries and other electric propulsion units,” they said in the press release, committing to making more compact motors allowing for lower hoods. .
Toyota, which has benefited from the rise of gasoline-electric hybrids in markets like the United States after drivers cooled down to electric vehicles, hopes a more compact engine will help rethink vehicle design by cost-saving space under the hood.
“If it’s cool, it will sell. Therefore, profits will increase,” Chief Technology Officer Hiroki Nakajima told reporters at Fuji Speedway on Friday.
“If it’s not cool, no one will buy it.”
This announcement is the latest example to highlight the close ties between Toyota and Subaru and Mazda. Toyota owns about a fifth of Subaru and about 5% of Mazda.
The three automakers said in the statement that their efforts will help decarbonize internal combustion engines by making them compatible with alternative fuel sources such as e-fuels and biofuels.
Automakers face tougher emissions standards in markets such as the European Union, where policymakers are implementing a set of rules known as “Euro 7” that they hope to apply to cars and to vans from 2030. They plan to ban the sale of new cars emitting CO2 from 2035. .
Toyota has followed a “multi-track” approach to carbon neutrality by meeting the different needs of each of its markets by offering vehicles with a range of powertrains.
It sold about 2.4 million vehicles between January and March, almost two-fifths of which were gasoline-electric hybrids. Plug-in hybrid, fuel cell and battery electric vehicles together accounted for just 2.9%.
President Akio Toyoda said in January that electric vehicles would reach a global auto market share of no more than 30%, with the rest made up of hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell cars and combustion vehicles.
(Reporting by Daniel Leussink; editing by Jamie Freed and Christopher Cushing)
