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TOKYO (AP) — Toyota is selling a part of its stake in components maker Denso to raise cash for its drive toward electric vehicles and other innovations, Japan's top automaker said Wednesday. The move is estimated to raise about 290 billion yen ($2 billion), given recent share prices. Toyota affiliates, Toyota Industries and Aisin, are also selling a portion of their Denso shares, officials said. Toyota officials have acknowledged they have fallen behind in the industry shift toward electric vehicles, and they have been aggressively playing catch-up. Toyota officials hinted other such offers may be in the works but declined to give specifics.

Persons: ”, Masahiro Yamamoto, Yamamoto, Yamamato, Yuri Kageyama Organizations: TOKYO, Toyota, Toyota Motor Corp, Denso Corp, Toyota Industries, Lexus, KDDI Corp

Toyota, Toyota Industries and Aisin will sell Denso shares worth a total of about 700 billion yen ($4.7 billion) at current market prices, the two sources said. In a statement, Denso said it was considering a share sale, a buyback and other capital measures, but that nothing had yet been decided. At $4.7 billion, it would be the second-biggest such share offering in Japan this year, after the more than $9 billion sale of shares in Japan Post Bank (7182.T) in March, according to LSEG data. Denso shares, which were down almost 4% before the news, extended losses after the Reuters report and fell as much as 6.8% on the day, closing 4.9% lower. Toyota shares finished little changed, as did the benchmark Nikkei 225 (.N225).

Persons: Denso, Miho Uranaka, Daniel Leussink, Maki Shiraki, Nobuhiro Kubo, David Dolan, Jamie Freed, Miral Fahmy, Louise Heavens Organizations: Companies, Toyota, Toyota Industries, Aisin, Japan Post Bank, Tokyo Stock Exchange, Buyers, KDDI Corp, Reuters, Nikkei, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, Denso, Japan

☆ Toyota to boost EV development and technology in China
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, July 31 (Reuters) - Toyota (7203.T) will strengthen its development of electric vehicle technology in China, the automaker said on Monday, as it looks to catch up with increasingly tough domestic competition in the world's largest auto market. The move is the latest from the world's top selling carmaker that shows a sharper pivot to electric vehicles. It recently detailed an ambitious new EV strategy that includes an overhaul of its supply chain and the development of long-range batteries. Toyota said on Monday it would accelerate powertrain development with suppliers Denso (6902.T) and Aisin (7259.T) as well as local design and development of "smart cockpits" that meet the needs of the Chinese market. It will strengthen development of battery-powered vehicles, plug-in hybrids, hybrids and fuel cell cars in China in order to achieve carbon neutrality through a "multi-pathway"-based approach, it said.

Persons: Daniel Leussink, David Dolan Organizations: Toyota, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, China

The plan comes a day before an annual shareholders meeting where governance and strategy - including a slow pivot to battery EVs under former CEO Akio Toyoda - will be scrutinised. Toyota said it aims to launch next-generation lithium-ion batteries from 2026 offering longer ranges and quicker charging. At the high end of the market, Toyota said it would produce an EV with a more efficient lithium-ion battery offering a range of 1,000 km (621 miles). An EV powered by a solid-state battery would have a range of 1,200 km and charging time of just 10 minutes, Toyota said. "What we want to achieve is to change the future with BEVs," Takero Kato, president of new Toyota EV unit BEV Factory, said in a video posted on the automaker's YouTube channel on Tuesday.

Persons: Akio Toyoda, Koji Sato, Takero Kato, BEV Factory, Henry Ford, Koji Endo, Toyota's, I'm, it's, Toyota's BEV Factory, Kato, Tesla, Daniel Leussink, Christopher Cushing, Kevin Krolicki Organizations: Toyota, EVs, Tesla, Engineers, Toyota EV, YouTube, NEW ASSEMBLY, SBI Securities, Lexus, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, China

☆ Factbox: Toyota unveils battery, production innovations for new EVs
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Toyota released a technology briefing, including details on new solid-state batteries, a day before its annual shareholder meeting where governance, climate lobbying and EV strategy are under scrutiny. Here are Toyota's key announcements:BATTERY TECHNOLOGYToyota has a number of initiatives to improve battery performance and reduce cost, and said it was ready to move from research toward production of solid-state batteries. It aims to sell vehicles powered by solid-state batteries by 2027 or 2028. Toyota said, without providing details, it had achieved a "technological breakthrough" overcoming problems previously identified with solid-state batteries' durability. Those chips promise to reduce power loss to the electric motor of an EV by up to 50%, Toyota said.

Persons: Daniel Leussink, Kevin Krolicki, Christopher Cushing Organizations: Toyota, EV, Tesla, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi, Denso, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, U.S, Tokyo, Singapore

☆ Exclusive: Toyota to outline 3-year EV plan changes to suppliers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Norihiko Shirouzu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The leading Japanese automaker is expected to detail the EV plan changes through early 2026, communicating the adjustments to major suppliers, the people said on condition of anonymity as the information is confidential. Toyota is set to convene a major powwow of suppliers in February, the first such global supplier convention since the pandemic. The working group has been charged with outlining plans to improve Toyota's EV approach, including considering a potential successor to its new EV platform, e-TNGA. Toyota has been working with two suppliers Denso (6902.T) and Aisin (7259.T) for its EV reboot. That resulted in a soon-to-be-marketed, China-only Toyota electric sedan called the bZ3, powered by BYD batteries.

The chip is called the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC and was developed by Xilinx, which was acquired by AMD this year. This will allow automakers to update not only software, but also the chip, after the car is sold, Rehan Tahir, AMD’s senior product marketing manager for automotive told Reuters. Tahir said the Aisin auto parking system will start production on 2024 models, but declined to say which car brands would use it. Tahir said the Aisin system works with four cameras and 12 ultrasonic sensors on the car to parallel park and also back into parking spaces. But the human in the car will have to decide if that spot is in a no-parking zone, he said.

☆ Exclusive: Toyota scrambles for EV reboot with eye on Tesla
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Norihiko Shirouzu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

As part of the review, Toyota is considering a successor to its EV-underpinning technology called e-TNGA, unveiled in 2019. TESLA AS BENCHMARKThe review was triggered in part by the realisation by some Toyota engineers and executives that Toyota was losing the factory cost war to Tesla on EVs, the sources said. Toyota designed e-TNGA so that EVs could be produced on the same assembly line with gasoline cars and hybrids. The person leading Toyota's EV review is Shigeki Terashi, former chief competitive officer, according to six people with knowledge of the work, including two people close to Toyota. The recognition within Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, that Tesla has set a new benchmark for EV manufacturing costs marks a major reversal.

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