Nikkei Asia reported that Mazda plans to jointly develop next-generation in-vehicle systems with Toyota Motor, and Mazda hopes to reduce development costs by 80%.
As electric vehicles gain popularity and vehicles become more sophisticated, Japanese companies are trying to keep up with leading manufacturers in Europe and the United States in fierce competition. Mazda plans to jointly develop in-vehicle systems with Toyota, and by 2027, 90 percent of the systems in Mazda electric models are expected to be identical to Toyota systems.
Mazda believes that cooperation with Toyota will allow it to significantly reduce the cost of developing in-car systems compared to developing systems for electric vehicles itself. Some automakers and major parts suppliers spend about 300 billion yen (approximately 14.865 billion RMB) on software development alone every year. Mazda’s cost savings may be as high as hundreds of billions of yen, reducing its development costs by about 70% to 80%.
The report also mentioned that Toyota, Honda and other Japanese automakers are continuing to develop in-car operating systems and aim to launch them around 2025. In addition to these traditional automakers, American and Chinese technology giants such as Google and Huawei have also joined the race for next-generation in-vehicle systems.
It is noted that Nikkei Asia had previously reported that Mazda Motors will launch a plug-in hybrid vehicle in China as early as 2025 and will jointly develop it with its partner Changan Automobile.
At present, Mazda is not active in promoting electric vehicles. Plug-ins and electric vehicles combined will account for about 2% of the 1.1 million vehicles the company sold globally in 2022. Mazda President and CEO Masahiro Moro said at the Tokyo Motor Show: “My impression is that 70% of new cars sold in China are plug-in cars.” He revealed that between April and September, Mazda’s new cars in China were Sales fell 10% year-on-year.
