Photo: Mazda
Toyota and Mazda are two of the larger carmaking companies that are currently lagging in the electric vehicle department, but it's not like they can blame anyone but themselves for it.
Toyota insisted the market would not be ready for battery-powered vehicles for many years to come and chose to focus on hybrids (of the plug-in variety later on) and liquid hydrogen fuel cell technologies instead. While the former will certainly continue to be around for a while, the latter may turn out to be doomed after fewer and fewer companies seem to support it.
Mazda, on the other hand, has been even more skeptical in the face of EVs. The Hiroshima-based Japanese company is busy creating more and more efficient combustion engines instead and after the SKYACTIV technology (which saw compression rates booted to unprecedented levels), it has recently introduced the SKYACTIV-X - a sparkless gasoline engine that ignites on compression alone, just like diesel.
However, both seemed to change their rhetoric lately and appear much more favorable to EVs, all leading to this announcement made today. Together with Denso, an automotive parts supplier, the three are forming EV C.A. Spirit Co., Ltd., a company that looks to "ensure the efficient implementation of the joint technological development projects."
The new entity will have 40 employees at the beginning, most of them being engineers from all three partners. The equity participation is spread unevenly - 90% Toyota, and 5% for both Mazda and Denso - suggesting the larger of the two carmakers might be the one more in control over the proceedings. Considering its superior expertise in the field, that doesn't come as a surprise.
The press release says the new company will develop "basic structural technologies for EVs" that would cover the entire spectrum, from small cars to SUVs and even light trucks. However, we shouldn't expect rebadged versions of the same vehicle like the Toyota GT86/Subaru BRZ, for example. The two are very clear about maintaining their brand identity, so the eventual products should hopefully be different enough.
We might have to wait a little until we get to see any of them, though, since - as we've said - the two Japanese manufacturers have some ground to make up. But joining their efforts seems like the best thing to do, and it will undoubtedly benefit both parties. That is unless they fall out as Toyota did with Subaru after the collaboration mentioned before.
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