Following the pace of Uber, Toyota announced the cooperation with Didi Chuxing.
Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing announced a tie-up with Toyota Motor Corporation on July 25 as it expands in the intelligent mobility field. At the meantime, Toyota will invest USD 600 million in Didi. Part of the amount will be used to form a joint venture, providing vehicle-related services for Didi drivers.
The privately-held company said the cooperation was an extension of "D-Alliance". It initiated the organization in April 2018 with over 30 vehicle manufacturers and industrial chain enterprises in order to jointly found a vehicle operator platform.
"Didi is devoted to working with global industrial partners to push the process of new energy and intelligent transportation deployment," Zhu Jingshi (朱景士), senior vice president of Didi, said at the conference.
Didi states that both parties will take advantage of their own expertise and experience to create a new mobility society in order to offer safer and more convenient mobility services to customers.
Early in 2018, Didi already had cooperation with Toyota in the e-Palette intelligent driving platform and car leasing services. So far, the two parties are working on applying data analysis function of Toyota’s Mobility Services Platform (MSPF) to serving various vehicle-related products such as car maintenance to ride-hailing drivers, by means of TransLog technology.
Shigeki Tomoyama, president of Toyota's in-house Connected Company said by collaborating with Didi, Toyota's intelligent connectivity services and electric vehicle applications would be further enhanced.
Earlier in this month, Didi was reported to seek USD 2 billion funding by issuing new shares. The people familiar with this matter said the valuation after funding would reach USD 62 billion.