China Direct

Toyota accelerates in China market

 

CBI member, Toyota has announced that it plans to extend its partnerships with leading Chinese automobile manufacturers, such as BYD, and ride-hailing group, DiDi, to significantly improve its market share in the China market.

Toyota currently only has a 5% share of the China market, and remains far behind other foreign – predominantly German – car makers such as BMW, Audi and Mercedes. Consequently, 5 months ago, Toyota CEO, Akio Toyoda, journeyed west to capture the attention of China’s automobile market.

Since coming in April, Toyota has signed deals with BYD and Contemporary Amperex Technology to develop batteries for electrified vehicles and invested $600 million in DiDi. Building on these initial investments, Toyota teamed up with Chinese start-up unicorn, Pony.ai to carry out a pilot programme for autonomous driving in July, which resulted in the Japanese marque joining Baidu’s self-driving car programme, Apollo.

As Chinese consumers become further entrenched in a trade war with the US, the Japanese group has benefited in a turn in fortunes. While reduced consumer spending saw China’s automobile market fall by 11.4% over the last 12 months, Toyota saw sales rise by 12%.

Mr. Toyoda said: “The potential rewards for Toyota are immense. Especially in this market, China, the speed of change is very, very fast. [Toyota] have to make a lot of effort to follow the changes in China. That’s the biggest issue for us.”

Company executives reportedly see China as one of the few markets where Toyota has the potential to sell its broad line-up of electrification technology used in hybrids, electric cars, and fuel cell vehicles. Beijing wants to become the world’s champion in fully electric vehicles by 2025, after all.

BP partners with DiDi to charge China’s new energy vehicle network

 

CBI member, BP has announced that it will enter into a joint venture with China’s leading ride hailing service provider, DiDi. The joint venture company will focus on developing new energy vehicle charging infrastructure across China to cater to the country’s developing NEV market.

Initially, the joint venture partnership will only focus on the installation and development of charging infrastructure. However, both companies have reported plans to extend the JV to include collaboration in areas such as loyalty programmes, convenience services and vehicle maintenance.

Yang Xiaoping, Chairwoman and President of BP China said: “China has provided tremendous growth opportunity for BP. Through cooperating with DiDi, BP will be able to actively provide differentiated products to cater to China’s fast-growing new energy vehicle charging market and further expand our brand presence in China.”

Fan Tu, CEO of BP’s downstream business said, “China is the world’s largest new energy vehicle market and presents tremendous opportunity for determining a business model that is both innovative and scalable. [BP] believes that entering into a joint venture with DiDi is the right way to respond to this fast-changing market. Moreover, by being in partnership with DiDi, BP will be to further expand its advanced mobile travel business globally, promoting energy transformation and low carbon solutions across the world.”

BP’s first NEV charging station has already been installed in Guangzhou in Guangdong Province and has the capability to charge 10 cars simultaneously on currents ranging between 60-100kw. It will subsequently be re-branded in light of the JV and serve as a model for the company’s expansion across China.