Toyota plans to build ‘competitive’ local EVs in China as it looks to play catchup
As Japanese automakers fall behind in the surging Chinese EV market, Toyota looks to turn things around. Toyota announced Monday it will boost local development of tech and software in China to produce “electrified vehicles that are competitive” where EVs are taking over the market.
Toyota boosts local EV development in China
A market once dominated by foreign automakers like Toyota and Volkswagen, China is now seeing an unprecedented surge in domestically built EVs.
On top of this, price cuts from the nation’s top EV makers, like BYD and Tesla, continue putting more pressure on other automakers.
To catch up, Toyota’s new plans call for accelerating local design and development of smart cockpits to enhance the driving experience with modern interior designs and built-in AI, something buyers in China are gravitating toward.
Toyota is also working with its top suppliers, Denso and Aisin, to speed up electric powertrain development.
The move comes after a report from Reuters claimed Toyota’s joint venture in the region with China’s GAC was laying off workers last week.
Toyota also plans to significantly reduce manufacturing costs through three initiatives. These include developing a local supplier base, reviewing parts designs, and reforming production and manufacturing to regain competitiveness.
CEO of Toyota China, Tatsuro Ueda, commented on the situation, saying:
The Chinese market is growing at an unprecedented pace. Toyota will also work together as a group to reform how we work & think to survive in China. By promoting local development with IEM by TOYOTA at its core, we will attempt to develop and provide competitive products that can satisfy Chinese customers at a fast pace.
Meanwhile, the automaker is sticking to its “multi-pathway” approach, which includes EVs, PHEVs, HEV, and FCEVs.
Electric vehicle urgency reaches Japan
Newly elected CEO Koji Sato stated during an interview after taking over in April, “We need to increase our speed and efforts to firmly meet the customer expectations in the Chinese market.”
Toyota already slashed prices on its first electric SUV in the region, the bZ4X, earlier this year. On top of this, the automaker issued a recall (over 12K units) for its first electric sedan, the BYD-powered bZ3, over defective door handles.
The automaker has already revealed plans to advance new EV technologies, including Giga casting to reduce manufacturing complexity, self-propelled production lines, hypersonic rocket tech to enhance efficiency, and next-gen batteries that will boost range while cutting costs.
Toyota plans to have engineers from its three joint ventures in China, BYD, FAW, and GAC, work on a “Toyota-led development project.”
Electrek’s Take
Japanese automakers, who have been slow to adopt purely electric vehicles, are falling behind in the world’s largest EV market, and it’s starting to take its toll.
Mitsubishi was the first Japanese EV maker to fall in China, announcing plans to suspend operations in the region indefinitely earlier this month. A company memo stated, “In the past few months, management and shareholders have tried to the best of our ability, but due to market conditions and with great reluctance and regret, we must seize the opportunity to transition to new energy vehicles.”
Mitsubishi, like Toyota, cited China’s transition from ICE to electric as reasoning. Mitsubishi’s sales have fallen from a peak of 134,500 in 2019 to only 34,500 this past year.
Other Japanese automakers are also seeing sales fall in the region, including Honda, Nissan, and Mazda.
Toyota’s sales in China fell 2.8% in the first half of the year, including a 12.8% drop in June. And it’s not only happening to automakers in Japan. They are just seeing some of the most drastic impacts. Other foreign automakers are also feeling the heat in China’s booming EV market.
Volkswagen has accelerated its EV efforts in the region, partnering with Xpeng Motors (through Audi) to use its tech platform, ADAs, and connectivity software to develop two new models.
Meanwhile, China’s EV market continues to get bigger, and domestic automakers like BYD, NIO, XPeng, Li Auto, and others are gaining their share.
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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