Toyota Motor Corp is taking an unprecedented route to meet China’s stringent “green” car quotas: Its showrooms are to sell an electric vehicle without the Japanese company’s distinctive triple-oval logo.
Instead, it is to feature the label of GAC Motor (廣汽乘用車), Toyota’s Chinese partner, and is to be built around GAC’s lower-cost technology.
The move — a first for Toyota — would give GAC access to the Japanese carmaker’s stringent quality control, prestige and sales channel. For Toyota, it presents a quick way to meet Beijing’s requirements that such vehicles represent 10 percent of an auto manufacturer’s production by next year.
Toyota plans to start selling the GAC Toyota ix4 by the end of the year, two company executives familiar with the matter said.
The car is a battery-powered compact SUV based on GAC’s Trumpchi GS4, and has been in development for two years.
Selling a car derived from a Chinese partner’s vehicle would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, but the idea gained momentum at Toyota because of the Chinese government’s push to get more electric vehicles on the road, the executives said.
The government mandates have spurred other new alliances, such as Ford Motor Co’s agreement to develop electric vehicles with Zotye Automobile Co (眾泰汽車).
Ford is waiting for regulatory approval for its partnership, which calls for designing and manufacturing several jointly developed, no-frills electric vehicles and selling them through a new China-only brand.
It was not immediately clear which parts of the ix4 Toyota would provide or which company’s design standards were used. Quality experts say GAC cars rate relatively high.
Under the Chinese regulations taking effect next year, carmakers must amass credits for so-called new-energy vehicles equivalent to 10 percent of annual sales by next year. That level rises to 12 percent for 2020.
New-energy vehicles are defined as all-electric battery and plug-in electric hybrid cars.
Although the ix4 gives Toyota a cheaper and quicker way to meet the quota, it also shows the company’s anxiety about getting a toehold in the Chinese electric vehicle market before its own all-battery vehicle is available in 2020, industry officials and experts said.
“It’s a creative solution to a critical issue all automakers face in China: how to meet the strict production quotas for electric cars,” said James Chao (趙英智), Shanghai-based Asia-Pacific head of consultancy IHS Markit.
At the Beijing auto show last month, Toyota unveiled plug-in electric hybrid versions of its Corolla and Levin, due to go on sale next year. The company is also developing an all-electric battery car of its own, which the company has said should hit the market in 2020.
“All this means our partnership has entered a new phase,” the second Toyota executive said.
The GAC-Toyota joint venture, established in 2004, has always produced and sold Toyota vehicles modified to sell in China or China-only Toyota cars.
To be sure, industry officials and analysts believe GAC Motor cars such as the Trumpchi GS4 have been developed by studying global brands’ cars, including those from its partners Toyota and Honda Motor Co.
Toyota is negotiating to execute a similar electric vehicle deal with its second partner, FAW Group (一汽集團), but nothing has been finalized, the first Toyota executive said.
Both executives declined to provide other details, including a target sales volume for the all-electric car or a pricing strategy for it.
Toyota is to assemble the vehicle at a factory in Guangzhou.
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