Some pretty cool news from Toyota and BMW.
At a press conference in Tokyo, the Toyota Motor Corporation and the BMW Group jointly announced they would collaborate on specific advanced powertrain technologies. The effort would initially be focused on research in lithium-ion batteries.
Additionally, BMW was contracted to supply 1.6-liter and 2-liter 4-cylinder diesel engines to Toyota Motor Europe.
Batteries have historically been the most troublesome component in electric- and hybrid-vehicle development. While lithium-ion batteries generally deliver improved range and performance over previous battery materials like nickel-metal hydride, advances in this area could help these vehicles, particularly E.V.’s, find broader adoption in the marketplace.
“We think that this collaboration will allow for development of next-generation batteries to be done faster and at a higher level,” said Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota executive vice president, of the agreement with BMW.
Both automakers said that the joint effort was a mid- to long-term commitment and that other areas for collaboration would be discussed.
Read more: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/bmw-and-toyota-to-collaborate-on-battery-development/
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