Toyota, the world’s biggest car maker, and China, the world’s biggest polluter, are teaming up. This doesn’t sound like the greenest pairing in history, but the fact that Toyota is planning to move a good deal of its hybrid manufacturing to China does in fact spell good news for the environment.
This will be the first time Toyota has manufactured key components for its Hybrid cars outside Japan. It is choosing China for a variety of reasons, but the main one, as is so often the case, is to increase profits. By being closer to the constantly swelling Chinese car market, Toyota will be able to reduce costs dramatically.
Another stumbling block overcome by moving manufacturing of these components to China is the fact that China has heavy restrictions on exports of ‘rare earth’ elements – elements that are essential for the production of hybrid technology such as batteries. Since China is one of the world’s biggest sources of rare earth material, this is understandably a prime consideration.
Previous attempts to sell hybrid technology in China have fallen foul of the fact that crucial hybrid components, currently manufactured in Japan, simply added too much on the final price of the car, thereby pushing many Chinese consumers out of the market.
So, the days of Toyota making the most of its car components in Japan may be coming to a close. For some, the notion of high technology car parts such as these being made in China might add to the chances of the final product suffering a car breakdown, but in reality China has become one of the biggest makers of high-tech products – including the very latest smartphones and laptops.
As the story of Hybrid unfolds, it looks likely we will see more related elements being produced in China.
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