According to news on November 17, in May this year, Toyota Japan established a new department called BEVFactory to be responsible for pure electric vehicle business. The division’s president, Takero Kato, recently gave an interview detailing the details of their partnership with BYD to develop the first Toyota electric sedan. He said that this cooperation allowed them to learn a lot of "things that they had not been exposed to before."
Toyota hopes to produce competitive pure electric vehicles through in-depth cooperation with external partners. Under Takero Kato's leadership, Toyota's "development, production and operations" of all-electric vehicles are all under one roof.
Takero Kato collaborated with BYD to produce the first Toyota electric sedan, the bZ3. This project originated from his trip to China in 2018. He said, “That was the first time I directly faced the competitiveness of Chinese parts and components.” After seeing equipment and manufacturing processes that had not been used in Japan, he realized, “We may be in trouble!”
After that, Kato Takero’s dream of working in China became a reality. At a meeting of Toyota executives, Vice President Shigeki Terahashi asked him: "We are considering a project with BYD. Can you take charge of this?"
Takero Kato was selected as the project leader to jointly produce electric cars with BYD. He quickly assembled a team.
After the vacation, Kato Takero went to BYD. They spent half a year visiting BYD's headquarters to "lay the foundation", and the team finalized the idea in 2020.
Kato Takero is aware of China's development speed and new technologies, and he is "eager to integrate there and absorb things we don't have to further promote development."
This process requires constant change. In past Toyota new car projects, vehicle specifications had to be finalized before development could begin.
He explained that the first major revisions came five months after revising the vehicle's height and wheelbase. Since the overall height was reduced by 25 mm, the car's chassis needed to be redesigned.
Takero Kato said: "In Japan, this will bring the entire development work to a standstill." bZ3 will be released in October 2022 and is the first pure electric sedan jointly developed by Toyota and BYD.
This electric car is equipped with BYD blade batteries, motors and electronic control systems, with a cruising range of more than 600 kilometers. The e-TNGA pure electric platform it uses has powered the Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra.
The first bZ3 rolled off the assembly line in March this year. FAW Toyota revealed that it received more than 5,000 orders on the first sales day.
Since then, Toyota has announced a series of innovations to accelerate the development and production efficiency of pure electric vehicles. Toyota plans to launch a new generation of electric vehicles equipped with advanced batteries, new platforms and improved manufacturing processes in 2026. Takero Kato is currently in charge of developing new models. (Chenchen)