AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/18 Report--

Toyota formally formed a joint venture with DiDi, which is named Fengju Travel. The company has a registered capital of US $157.95 million and one of its shareholders is Guangzhou Auto Toyota Motor Co., Ltd., the scope of the joint venture includes car leasing, sales of cars, auto parts, online taxi booking and so on.

The joint venture is part of an earlier agreement between the two sides. On July 25, 2019, Toyota announced an investment of US $600m (about RMB 4.125 billion) in Didi, a ride-hailing platform, some of which will also be used to set up a joint venture with GAC Toyota to provide vehicle-related services for ride-hailing drivers.

According to Japanese media, the new joint venture will buy Toyota and lease it to a ride-hailing driver, with Toyota dealers responsible for car maintenance services. Toyota will also consider providing locally produced electric vehicles in or after 2020, and Didi is already working with the electric vehicle business that Toyota is developing.

"I am very pleased to work with Didi to further strengthen the application of Toyota's intelligent interconnection service and the next generation of pure electric vehicles, so as to strengthen the cooperative relationship," said Tomoshi Tomoyama, Toyota's vice president. In the future, we will work with Didi to develop a safe and secure mobile travel service that is popular with Chinese consumers. "

Toyota also said in a press release that the two sides hope to provide vehicle management, maintenance, insurance and financial services to consumers and drivers in China's mobile travel market through various MSPF-based Smart Internet services. At the same time, Toyota hopes to introduce and popularize pure electric vehicles that meet the needs of China Mobile's travel services in the future.

With the rapid popularization of shared travel and ride-hailing, traditional car manufacturers actively seek to strengthen cooperation with travel platform companies, which is no longer limited to the single traditional way of manufacturing and sales. Mobile travel, ride-hailing business, self-driving and other cooperation will become the focus of future development.

The cooperation between Toyota and DiDi is to further expand market share by virtue of its advantages in the field of new energy vehicles, and Didi drivers are expected to popularize the use of Toyota's hybrid and pure electric models in the future.

Didi platform dominates the domestic ride-hailing market, has a large number of conditions for car-hailing to run at the same time throughout the country, the demand for ride-hailing is huge, and Toyota New Energy vehicles have direct sales channels. Speeding up the popularity of Toyota in the ride-hailing market is also an important reason for Toyota to invest in Didi.

Invest in Didi, focus on car procurement, provide after-sales service and parts, and Toyota seeks a larger market layout in the travel sector.

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