(Yicai) April 26 -- Toyota Motor and Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings have joined hands to develop a digital ecosystem for the Japanese carmaker's electric vehicles sold in China.

Toyota will start a strategic partnership with Tencent, Hiroki Nakajima, director of the Toyota-based firm, said at the Beijing Auto Show yesterday.

Tencent and Toyota will ally in core areas, including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and Big Data, noted Tang Daosheng, senior executive vice president of the Shenzhen-based company and chief executive of Tencent Cloud and Smart Industries Group.

As the energy conditions and living surroundings vary from country to country, Toyota hopes to achieve carbon neutrality by providing diverse solutions, including battery, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, Nakajima, who is also the carmaker's vice president and chief technology officer, added. This differs from Volkswagen Group's 'All In' strategy of supplying pure EVs, he pointed out.

"China is the world's largest car market with more than 30 million new vehicles sold annually, so Toyota will stick to the idea of 'multi-path,' develop battery and hybrid EVs in a balanced manner and enhance the sector of plug-in hybrid EVs in the future," Nakajima noted.

Last August, Toyota renamed its largest research and development base in China to Intelligent ElectroMobility R&D Center by Toyota China to adapt itself to the local car market and improve R&D capabilities, speeding up the development of EVs. In addition, it has set up an EV joint venture with Chinese new energy vehicle giant BYD to develop local models.

The bZ3C, made by Toyota and BYD, and the bZ3X, developed by Guangzhou-based GAC Group and Toyota, will launch within one year. The two EVs will be equipped with the Japanese firm's latest autonomous driving assistance and intelligent cockpit systems.

Editor: Martin Kadiev