On Friday, Toyota Motor Corp and Suzuki Motor Corp said that they want to begin making hybrid vehicles in India. Toyota says that hybrid cars are a good fit for India and similar countries.
In August, a Toyota plant in southern India will start making a hybrid SUV (sport utility vehicle) that was developed by Suzuki.
They say that two types of motors will be available: a mild hybrid motor from Suzuki and a strong hybrid motor from Toyota. A mild hybrid uses battery power to help a gas engine. A strong hybrid can use only the battery in an all-electric mode.
This vehicle is part of a partnership that the two Japanese companies started in 2017. It will sell this SUV in India and export it to other areas including Africa.
Green investors are not happy with Toyota. The investors say that Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, is moving too slowly to BEVs (battery electric vehicles).
Toyota says that hybrid cars are better in areas where infrastructure is not ready for BEVs.
Toyota also says that in some countries, a lot of electricity is made by burning coal or oil. BEVs use that electricity, so they are polluting more than hybrid cars in those countries.
Last year, Toyota decided to spend $60 billion by 2030 to add batteries to all of its vehicles. However, only half of that money is for developing fully electric vehicles.
The new SUV doesn’t have a name yet. It will be sold under both brands, Toyota and Suzuki.
India wants car companies to make more electric vehicles, but the process is slow. Tata Motors is the only company that builds electric vehicles in India.
In March, Suzuki said that it will invest $1.4 billion in India to make BEVs and batteries. However, the Indian branch of Suzuki, Maruti Suzuki (the largest car carmaker in India), said that the first electric vehicle will not come before 2025.
Before Toyota starts making BEVs in India, it wants to set up a supply chain for electric vehicles there. Toyota has plans to invest more than $600 million to make India a global supplier of parts for electric vehicles.
BEVs and hybrids like the Prius are still too expensive for most buyers in India and similar countries.
Suzuki already has low-cost manufacturing in India, so this is one reason that Toyota partnered with them. The agreement includes developing vehicles together, lowering production costs, and sharing technology.
Vocabulary
- Hybrid – made of two different things / a car with both a gas engine and electric motor
- Plant – a factory, a place where a product is built or made
- Export – to send goods/products to a different country to sell
- Green – to support or help the environment and nature, interested in protecting the earth
- Carmaker – a company or business that makes cars
- Infrastructure – equipment and structures for a city or society (roads, railroads, bridges, power plants, etc.)
- Coal – a black or dark brown rock that burns strongly, a rock used to make big fires
- Pollute – to make dirty, to poison
- Supply chain – network of businesses, people and materials to make a product
- Manufacturing – the making or production of something, to create or build
Original story from Reuters below:
