Toyota, BYD Team Up to Make New Electric Car in China

Japan’s Toyota has teamed up with Chinese auto firm BYD to produce a compact electric car which will be made and sold in China.

The Japanese automaker said the car would be called the Toyota bZ3 but did not say when the vehicle will be available in showrooms.

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It is the second model in the new Beyond Zero (bZ) series of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from Toyota, which has been criticised by activists and green investors for not embracing BEVs quickly enough.

Toyota had planned to unveil the bZ3, which uses BYD’s less bulky Blade batteries, at the Beijing auto show in April, but the event was reportedly cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The bZ3 was developed jointly by Toyota and BYD, Toyota said on Monday.

Reuters with additional editing by Sean O’Meara

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Sean O'Meara

Sean O'Meara is an Editor at Asia Financial. He has been a newspaper man for more than 30 years, working at local, regional and national titles in the UK as a writer, sub-editor, page designer and print editor. A football, cricket and rugby fan, he has a particular interest in sports finance.