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Category: Automotive

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest Auto and Car news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • Billionaire Lawrence Stroll Seeks Big Stake In Aston Martin

    Billionaire Lawrence Stroll Seeks Big Stake In Aston Martin

    Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, owner of Formula One team Racing Point, is preparing a bid for a major stake in Aston Martin , Autocar magazine reported, sending the luxury sports car maker’s battered shares up 17 percent on Thursday.

    Aston Martin, the drive of choice for fictional British secret agent James Bond, has seen its shares slump since its flotation in October 2018 as sales have failed to meet expectations.

    Stroll, who is the father of Formula One driver Lance Stroll, is heading up a consortium looking to take a “major shareholding” in the British company, Autocar and the racefans.net website reported on Thursday.

    Racefans.net said Racing Point could be rebranded as Aston Martin if Stroll succeeded in taking a controlling stake.

    Aston Martin declined to comment and Racing Point said Stroll was unavailable for comment.

    The carmaker’s shares were up nearly 17% at 5.88 pounds ($7.54) at 1414 GMT, valuing the business at about 1.3 billion pounds, but still far below their initial public offering (IPO) price of 19 pounds.

    As the car industry consolidates through deals such as the Peugeot-Fiat merger, Aston has said it does not need to belong to a bigger automotive group, pointing to the success of stand-alone rival Ferrari .

    But the sale of a stake could help boost the company’s prospects as it seeks to turn around a poor performance, which pushed it to a 92.3 million pound ($118.4 million) loss in the first nine months of the year.

    In August, Aston’s biggest investor, Strategic European Investment Group, acquired an additional 3% stake in the company.

    A month later, Aston raised $150 million in debt at 12% interest, hiking its borrowing costs, to bolster its balance sheet for the launch of its DBX sports utility vehicle next year, with the option for another $100 million.

    The company’s hopes rest on almost doubling sales with its first SUV, which enters production in 2020, particularly by attracting more female buyers to the brand.

    Aston is also the title sponsor of the Honda-powered Red Bull team, former world champions who won three races this year with Dutch 22-year-old Max Verstappen.

    Aston will be competing in the World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours with its Valkyrie hypercar from 2021.

    Mercedes’ parent Daimler also has a small stake in Aston.

    Stroll, a collector of vintage Ferraris, has been involved in Formula One and motor racing for years and also owns Canada’s Mont Tremblant circuit in Quebec.

    He made his money through investing in fashion brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors, but came to wider prominence in motor racing circles after bankrolling his son’s career.

    Lance Stroll, 21, moved to Racing Point from Williams this season after a consortium led by his father bought the Force India team, which was co-owned by financially troubled Indian magnate Vijay Mallya and had fallen into administration.

    The Silverstone-based team, which uses Mercedes engines, finished seventh overall this season but is planning a factory expansion.

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  • Japan’s Markets Watchdog Likely To Recommend $22 Million Fine Against Nissan

    Japan’s Markets Watchdog Likely To Recommend $22 Million Fine Against Nissan

    Japan’s markets watchdog will likely recommend soon that the financial regulator fine Nissan Motor Co Ltd about 2.4 billion yen ($22 million) over false reporting on its financial statement, public broadcaster NHK reported on Sunday.

    Nissan’s former Chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested in Tokyo in November last year over allegations of financial misconduct, including understating his salary by around 9.1 billion yen ($84.71 million) over a period of nearly a decade and temporarily transferring personal financial losses to the books of Nissan, Japan’s No. 2 automaker.

    Reuters reported in June that Nissan would be fined up to 4 billion yen and it may receive a reduced fine of around 2.4 billion yen if the automaker filed documentation to the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) before the formal investigation begins, citing a source.

    The fine would cover a four-year period through March 2018, the source previously told Reuters.

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  • VW’s German Plants Need To Shape Up

    VW’s German Plants Need To Shape Up

    Volkswagen’s German plants need to boost efficiency to match overseas operations, production chief Andreas Tostmann was quoted as saying, targeting 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in savings by 2023. German carmakers, including Volkswagen’s Audi brand, have announced thousands of job cuts in recent weeks to address an expected 5% drop in global auto sales this year, with declines likely to spill into 2020.

    “The pace of improvement is better abroad. In Germany, despite all the successes we’ve achieved, we have to do better,” Tostmann told trade journal Automobilwoche.

    Tostmann wants to implement the savings in the production of VW branded cars through a bundle of measures on top of automation, including a leaner logistics operation.

    “The result is that we need 15% less space, 60% fewer logistics vehicles and are able to move 20% more product,” said Tostmann, according to extracts from his Automobilwoche interview.

    VW’s luxury Audi division last month said that it would cut up to 9,500 jobs, equating to 10.6% of total staff, by 2025 in a move to free up billions of euros to fund the shift towards electric vehicle production.

    Rival Daimler, as well as car suppliers Continental, Robert Bosch and Osram, have also recently announced staff and cost cuts.

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  • Hyundai Begins Feasibility Study For Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle in India

    Hyundai Begins Feasibility Study For Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle in India

    Hyundai Motor India today announced that it plans to expand its green mobility portfolio in India which currently only has the Kona EV. Hyundai has had its share of success with the Kona EV in the country and even managed to bag a small order from EESL. But now the company is taking another step in bringing in more green cars to the country. Hyundai today announced that it is evaluating the feasibility of bringing fuel cell electric vehicles for India.

    We told you back in September 2018, that Hyundai was planning to launch a fuel cell vehicle in the country and the Nexo will very much be part of the company’s portfolio soon and this news only cements what we had said back then. While a timeline for the launch for the Nexo has not been charted out yet, we wait to see, when these plans reach fruition. We have brought you the exclusive review of the Nexo though. The Nexo SUV is Hyundai’s important step to develop low emission models globally. The company has had a record sales for Nexo in its home market in November 2019 where it sold 699 units.

    The Nexo gets a fuel cell drivetrain, which is lighter than a regular electric powertrain. Hyundai says that the Nexo makes about 161 bhp of max power and peak torque of 395 Nm. Also, the Nexo SUV can do the 0-100 kmph sprint in 9.2 seconds and has a top speed of 177 kmph. The car has a range of 609 kilometres on a single charge according to Korean test standards. In typical SUV way, the Nexo is designed to handle cold starts even when the outside temperature is -30 degree Celsius.

    Mr S S Kim, MD and CEO, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, said, “Progress for Humanity with Zero Emission Mobility is our responsibility and vision to make a long-term positive transformation for our future generations. We have initiated the feasibility study for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle in India and promise to bring the ultimate solution in zero emission mobility”

  • Ford And McDonald’s Collaborate To Convert Coffee Bean Skin Into Car Parts

    Ford And McDonald’s Collaborate To Convert Coffee Bean Skin Into Car Parts

    Ford Motor and McDonald’s USA have collaborated to convert coffee bean skins to vehicle parts such as headlamp housing. We all know that the dried skin (chaff) of the bean comes off during the roasting process and it’s this skin that Ford will use to reinforce certain vehicle parts. The company found that chaff can be converted into a durable material. By heating the chaff to high temperatures under low oxygen, mixing it with plastic and other additives and turning it into pellets, the material can be formed into various shapes.

    By heating the chaff to high temperatures under low oxygen and mixing it with plastic and other additives it turns to pellets.

    The chaff composite meets the quality specifications for parts like headlamp housings and other interior and under hood components. According to Ford, the resulting components will be about 20 percent lighter and require up to 25 percent less energy during the molding process. Heat properties of the chaff component are significantly better than the currently used material, says the company.

    McDonald’s is expected to direct a significant portion of its coffee chaff in North America to Ford to be incorporated into vehicle parts. The project also involves Varroc Lighting Systems, which supplies the headlamps, and Competitive Green Technologies, the processor of the coffee chaff.

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  • Volkswagen Teases Nivus Subcompact Crossover

    Volkswagen Teases Nivus Subcompact Crossover

    Volkswagen has teased the Nivus subcompact Crossover and has said that the car will first be introduced in the Brazilian market after which it will be introduced in Europe. The car was earlier called the T-Sport and it looks like a small crossover coupe. Of course, the Nivus is the new name and it will slot below the T-Cross when it is unveiled and launched in markets. The Nivus is significant because it is based on the Polo and yes, it looks very different when compared to the hatchback. Though the teaser does not showcase much, we do get to see that the Nivus Coupe crossover comes with a different front grille and the coupe-like roofline with the roof rails bodes well with its crossover tag.

    So why are we interested in the Nivus? Well, it’s based on the company’s MQB A0 platform which has been specifically made by Volkswagen for emerging markets, but as we told you earlier, it will be the Brazilian market that will get the car first. While Volkswagen’s MQB A0 IN platform will also spawn a whole bunch of cars for our markets, we cannot rule out that the Nivus for the country. We’ve already told you that Volkswagen has given a big push for SUVs in India and we will see cars like the T-Roc, Tiguan AllSpace and even the T-Cross based compact SUV hitting the market by 2020.

    The Nivus then fits the bill to complete the company’s SUV assault in the country. It will definitely give consumers a lot of options to choose from while also riding on the rising SUV trend not just in India but globally as well. With a similar wheelbase as the new-gen Polo (2560 mm) so expect it to have good space on the inside. The Nivus crossover coupe will be launched in Brazil in mid-2020 and we wait to hear from Volkswagen India whether it plans to bring this car to India.

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  • BMW India Launches New ‘BMW Smart Repairs’ Across Its Service Network

    BMW India Launches New ‘BMW Smart Repairs’ Across Its Service Network

    BMW India announced the introduction of ‘BMW Smart Repairs’ across its service network in the country. According to the company, the new repair service will ensure faster repairs and a reduction in cost for small and medium-size repairs. Targeted repairs without having to replace bigger parts will be carried out by the company.

    BMW Smart Repair includes body and paint related jobs including plastic parts, dents, spot paint job, headlight, alloy wheel, and leather works.

    Rudratej Singh, President and Chief Executive Officer, BMW Group India said, “BMW Smart Repair follows a technology-driven, targeted approach to ensure quality BMW service for small and medium repairs instead of replacing whole parts. It significantly reduces service-related costs and turn-around time, so our customers can enjoy complete peace of mind. Whether the job is big or small, they know that their BMW will receive the finest care.”

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  • Amazon Web Services Puts Mahindra Electric In Top Gear

    Amazon Web Services Puts Mahindra Electric In Top Gear

    With India planning to replace a significant portion of its conventional internal combustion engine fleet by electric vehicles (EV) in the next decade and target 30 percent of all cars on the road to be EVs by 2030, the segment leader Mahindra Electric is witnessing a robust uptick for its vehicles not just in metro cities but also tier-1 and tier-2 cities, its CEO Mahesh Babu told IANS on Wednesday. Mahindra, the biggest electric car seller in the country, terms its eVerito “India’s first electric sedan”.

    Its electric 3-wheeler range Treo and Treo Yaari — India’s first lithium-ion electric 3-wheelers — is also witnessing a great adoption.

    As the company sees the future of the mobility as both electric and digital, the daunting task of handling data and maintaining an agile, scalable and secure workflow — anticipating millions of connected electric vehicles soon on the Indian roads — is what concerns Mahindra Electric the most.

    Amazon’s Cloud arm Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is organizing its annual flagship conference “AWS re: Invent” here this week, fits the bill for them.

    “Electric vehicles are bringing in best of the technologies together. The rapid progress demands us to be agile, secure and quick. AWS has empowered us better with handling data,” Babu said.

    “We are using load balancers and services that can auto-scale as the load increases. Agility comes from their serverless architecture that helps us to innovate faster. AWS Managed Services are compliant and have built-in security measures that include security updates and patching, etc,” he elaborated.

    Driven by an urge to cut pollution in the cities, enhance national fuel security and make it a major global manufacturing hub for electric vehicles, India has announced several incentives this year to boost the EV sector, ranging from tax cut to allow sale of electricity as “service” for charging of electric vehicles in a bid to attract investments into charging infrastructure.

    The government has introduced an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore for Phase 2 of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME 2) scheme to boost electric mobility.

    According to Babu, With FAME 2 and other benefits, they have seen an uptake in the sales of electric three-wheelers and electric cars in the fleet segment.

    “We expect the demand to come from the mass mobility segment first (3-wheelers, 2-wheelers, buses and fleet cars) followed by personal segment. Mahindra’s electric vehicles are witnessing demand not only in metro cities but also tier-1 and tier-2 cities have shown strong acceptance to our electric three-wheeler Treo,” Babu told IANS.

    Close on the heels of the Union Budget providing tax relief for buying EVs, the GST Council in its 36th meeting in July cut the tax on EVs from 12 percent to 5 percent. The Council also slashed rate for EV chargers from 18 percent to 5 percent making electric vehicles affordable for the buyers.

    Road transport accounts for around 90 percent of the total emissions in the transport sector in India. Given the large import dependence of the country for petroleum products, it is imperative that there should be a shift of focus to alternative fuels to support our mobility in a sustainable manner, according to the Economic Survey 2018-19.

    The lithium-ion powered three-wheelers are set to be a natural progression for the industry and Mahindra Electric is looking to ramp up its efforts in the li-ion battery space.

    “Mahindra Electric was the first to bring in lithium-ion powered auto with the launch of Treo. We have an experience of our 170 million electric kilometres in this technology in India that has helped us to understand the economics around EVs,” informed Babu.

    In 2018, the company announced collaboration with LG Chem to bring in global Li-ion technology to India.

    “The company is further investing in a new EV manufacturing plant in Chakan (Pune) and a global R&D centre in Bengaluru that will enable us to achieve scalability and agility to roll out new products quickly,” the Mahindra Electric CEO added.

    Mahindra Electric, he said, is now better equipped and flexible to quickly scale up its EV and connected mobility goals.

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  • Hyundai Motor Unveils Plan To Invest $52 Billion Over Six Years

    Hyundai Motor Unveils Plan To Invest $52 Billion Over Six Years

    Hyundai Motor plans to invest about 61.1 trillion won between 2020 and 2025, about one-third of the expenditure focused on electric and autonomous vehicles, the company said on Wednesday. The South Korean carmaker unveiled a “Strategy 2025” roadmap that envisaged annual average spending of 10 trillion won, higher than previous years, and up from a 2018 figure of 6.1 trillion won.

    Hyundai will devote about 20 trillion won of the total investment, spread across six years, to future technologies, it added.

    It also set an ambitious deadline of 2025 to place itself among the world’s top three makers of battery and fuel cell vehicles, with annual sales of 670,000 electric vehicles, including 560,000 battery-based cars.

    Hyundai shares were up 2% by 0136 GMT after the announcement, which included a plan to buy back 259.6 billion won worth of common shares.

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  • New Nissan CEO Rules Out Closer Capital Ties With Renault

    New Nissan CEO Rules Out Closer Capital Ties With Renault

    Nissan Motor Co is committed to its automaking alliance with Renault SA but will not look to deepen its capital ties with the French automaker any time soon, its new CEO said on Monday.

    On his first day in the new position, chief executive Makoto Uchida also pledged to repair profitability at Japan’s No. 2 automaker and said setting realistic targets would be key towards that goal, as it tries to make a clean break from the leadership of former chairman Carlos Ghosn.

    “Closer capital ties with Renault are not a focus in the short term,” he told reporters.

    Uchida became CEO of Nissan on Dec. 1, as the car maker tries to recover from a profit slump and draw a line under a year of turmoil after the Ghosn scandal. The ousted chairman is fighting financial misconduct charges in Japan.

    One of the new CEO’s big tasks is to salvage ties with Renault, which have deteriorated since Ghosn’s ouster as chairman of both companies.

    Renault holds a 43.4% stake in Nissan after it saved the Japanese automaker from financial ruin two decades ago, and has pushed for the two companies to merge.

    In rejecting a notion of a merger with Renault, Uchida, 53, echoes his predecessor Hiroto Saikawa, who stepped down in September.

    He added that the alliance must re-think how it can serve all of its three members, which also includes Mitsubishi Motors.

    “The alliance has to benefit each of its partners in terms of revenue and profit,” he said.

    “We need to re-evaluate what has worked and what hasn’t worked in the alliance in the past few years.”

    The CEO called for Nissan to set “challenging but achievable” targets, adding that this and the launch of more new car models and vehicle technologies would be key to its financial recovery.

    Nissan is bracing for its lowest annual profit in 11 years and has slashed its dividend by 65%. Its struggles come at a time when car companies desperately need scale to keep up with sweeping technological changes like electric vehicles and ride-hailing.

    “Somewhere along the way we created a culture of setting targets which could not be achieved,” Uchida said, adding that this had resulted in a focus on short-term results.

    “Years of this had led Nissan to its current “difficult situation,” he said, using heavy vehicle discounting in the U.S. market as an example of how aggressive sales targets to grow market share had deteriorated the company’s brand.

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  • Making cars costs more in Vietnam than other ASEAN countries

    Making cars costs more in Vietnam than other ASEAN countries

    Cars assembled and produced in Vietnam cost 20 percent more than in Thailand and Indonesia because a large number of parts have to be imported.

    Do Thu Hoang, Vice President of Toyota Vietnam, said at a forum Thursday that suppliers in the country are capable of making simple parts such as seats and wires, but for other parts like fuel caps, costs in Vietnam are 2-3 times higher than in Thailand and Indonesia.

    The country has to import about $2 billion worth of car parts each year, mostly components like the breaking and steering system, from countries like Japan, China and South Korea, according to a report submitted at the forum by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

    Pham Tuan Anh, deputy head of the ministry’s industry department, said that the large portion of imports puts the localization rate of cars with nine seats or less at 7-10 percent, even though the country had targeted a 60 percent rate by 2010.

    Anh said that the reason for the imports is the country’s small market size, making suppliers unable to produce large volumes to lower prices.

    Hoang proposed that the government provides financial support for suppliers to upgrade their machinery and equipment to produce more advanced parts.

    “Without support, local car producers will continue to rely on imports, and local suppliers will struggle to grow.”

    Pham Van Tai, CEO of Truong Hai Auto (THACO), suggested that the country should scrap imports tax on car parts that local producers are not capable of producing.

    Vietnam began developing its car industry in 1991, 30 years later than other countries in the region.

    The sales of imported cars in the first 10 months surged 2.2 times to 106,100 units, while that of locally-assembled ones fell 12 percent to 153,100, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).

  • Chicago Approves Traffic Congestion Tax On Ride-Hailing Services

    Chicago Approves Traffic Congestion Tax On Ride-Hailing Services

    A proposal to combat traffic congestion in Chicago by increasing taxes on certain ride-hailing trips won city council approval on Tuesday as the city and ride providers accused each other of penalizing low-income passengers.

    Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan increases the city’s tax on single-passenger trips and lowers the tax on shared rides while imposing new surcharges on weekday rides in the downtown area to raise $40 million for the fiscal year that begins Jan. 1.

    Ride-hailing companies Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc claimed the move would largely hurt low-income residents.

    Earlier this month, the city’s first female African-American mayor accused Uber of trying to resist any kind of regulation by stirring up racial tensions.

    Uber rejected her claims and said alternative proposals it offered would spare lower-income communities in Chicago’s South and West sides from higher costs while raising more money for the city’s budget.

    Reuters’ analysis of data that ride-sharing companies are required to disclose to Chicago shows fares for shared rides in the city have risen significantly over the past year, while fares for single riders have remained stable.

    The price increases for shared rides predominantly affect Chicago’s low-income neighborhoods where most of carpool rides are booked, the analysis showed. Over this period of increased fares, carpool ridership fell.

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  • Honda Two-Wheelers Resumes Operations At Manesar Plant

    Honda Two-Wheelers Resumes Operations At Manesar Plant

    Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) has announced that the company has decided to resume operations at the Manesar plant following widespread protests by workers. The protests started earlier this month after some contractual workers, whose contracts had expired or were nearing the end of contract, were asked to go on indefinite leave. More than 2,000 workers had protested the decision, forcing HMSI to suspend operations at the company’s manufacturing facility in Manesar. Now, HMSI has released a statement saying that all permanent workers have been asked to join duties from November 25-28 in four batches.

    “The decision to resume production at Manesar plant was initiated on November 22nd. All permanent staff associates were informed to join duties from 25th to 28th November in four batches. The process of joining back to work has started as per schedule and we look forward to the normalcy of operation after this process is completed. With the intention of maintaining industrial peace, Manesar plant management reaffirmed that all permanent workers are expected to resume work as per the schedule and carry out their assigned duties with discipline, good faith, cooperation and positivity,” an official statement from Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) said.

    The protests began on November 5, when some contractual employees were not allowed to go into the plant. The Manesar facility of HMSI employs around 1,900 permanent workers and 2,500 contract workers. According to the employee union, HMSI had reduced production of the facility by 50 percent, and sacking contractual workers. On its part, HMSI maintains that a slowdown in the auto industry over the last 11 months had led to production adjustment and manpower realignment at the plant. According to HMSI, the contractual workers whose term had been completed were relieved from their duties, but permanent workers were not impacted.

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  • Vietnamese carmaking startup VinFast gets $950 million credit line

    Vietnamese carmaking startup VinFast gets $950 million credit line

    VinFast, which aims to become Vietnam’s first domestic car manufacturer, said it has secured a 12-year credit facility for as much as $950 million to help buy machinery and equipment from German suppliers.

    The company, a unit of Vietnam’s largest conglomerate Vingroup JSC, plans to have its first production models built under its own badge hit the streets next August. Vingroup has earmarked about $3.5 billion for the project.

    VinFast, led by former General Motors executive Jim DeLuca, showed off its BMW-based LUX A2.0 sedan and LUX SA2.0 crossover at the Paris auto show last week. Assembly is scheduled to begin next week year.

    Credit Suisse AG and HSBC were the lead arrangers and the financing agreement was guaranteed by German export credit agency Euler Hermes, Vingroup and Vinfast said in a statement.

    The statement also said that in August Vinfast completed syndication of a $400 million term loan facility led by four international banks.

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  • Toyota to invest $2 billion in developing EVs in Indonesia

    Toyota to invest $2 billion in developing EVs in Indonesia

    Toyota Motor Corp. plans to invest $2 billion to develop electric vehicles in Indonesia over the next four years, starting with hybrid vehicles, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for maritime affairs said.

    “From 2019 to 2023, we will progressively increase our investment to 28.3 trillion rupiahs ($2 billion),” Toyota president Akio Toyoda was quoted as saying in a statement released by the ministry on Thursday.

    Toyota said this month that it aimed for half its global sales to be from electric vehicles by 2025, five years ahead of schedule, and will tap Chinese battery makers to meet the accelerated global shift to electric cars.

    The deal was agreed at a meeting in Osaka on Thursday between Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan and Toyoda.

    “Because the Indonesian government already has an electric vehicle development map, Toyota considers Indonesia a prime EV investment destination,” Toyoda said in the statement.

    He said Toyota would follow the government’s EV plan by investing in stages, starting with the development of hybrid vehicles.

    Monet, the self-driving car joint venture of Toyota and SoftBank Corp., separately told Reuters in June it plans to begin operating in Southeast Asia next year

    Indonesia, the region’s largest economy, has plentiful reserves of nickel laterite ore, a vital ingredient in the lithium-ion batteries used to power EVs, and has been making a push to attract foreign carmakers.

    Officials are betting Indonesia, which is already Southeast Asia’s second-largest car production hub, can become a major regional player in lithium battery production and feed the fast-rising demand for EVs.

    The country announced earlier in 2019 plans to introduce a financial program that will offer tax cuts to EV battery producers and automakers, as well as preferential tariff agreements with other countries that have a high EV demand.

    Indonesian ministers told Reuters in December that Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. plans to start producing EVs in Indonesia as part of an around $880 million auto investment in the country.

    Mitsubishi, meanwhile, announced in mid-2018 it would work with the Indonesian government to research infrastructure that could accommodate EVs.

    Analysts are cautious however on how quickly Indonesia’s EV ambitions can be carried out, as some of its lithium battery projects require complicated nickel smelter technology.

    The ministry’s statement on Thursday gave no details on how Toyota, which already makes batteries for hybrids and hybrid plug-ins, would implement its investment plans.

    Toyota was not immediately reachable for comment, but said in June it would partner with China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. and EV maker BYD Co. for battery procurement.

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