Toyota, Mazda collaborate on electric vehicles, connected cars

1686 Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) and 1844 Mazda Motor Corporation (Mazda) have today formed an alliance that will see them invest in a US$1.6 million assembly plant in the US and jointly develop technologies for electric vehicles, connected-car technology, advanced safety technologies and expand complementary products.

The new plant is estimated to be capable of producing 300,000 vehicles a year and is expected to open in 2021.

At the new plant, Mazda expects to produce cross-over models that Mazda will newly introduce to the North American market, and Toyota plans to produce the Corolla for the North American market.

The two companies are to explore joint development of technologies for the basic structure of competitive electric vehicles, enabling them to respond quickly to regulations and market trends in each country.

They will also work together to jointly develop in-car information and automated driving technologies, working together on Toyota's vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technologies.