2/ BYD & Toyota agreed to a 50/50 JV for BEV R&D in Nov. '19, & officially registered it in China in Apr. '20 w/ RMB 345M registered capital. BYD Toyota Electric Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd. (BTET) JV was created to research, design, & develop BEVs & platforms/parts used by BEVs. pic.twitter.com/udERpya4wj

— Bridget McCarthy (@bridgemccarthy_) December 14, 2021

4/ BTET operations started in May 2020. We now know the first BEV from BTET is expected to go into production 2H 2022 (possibly as early as June). It should be a ~$30k sedan built on BYD’s new e-platform 3.0, which uses BYD’s revolutionary Blade battery. https://t.co/CbFbdvlvqw

— Bridget McCarthy (@bridgemccarthy_) December 14, 2021

6/ This will be Toyota's second bZ model, after the bZ4X SUV, which will use e-TNGA platform developed by Toyota & Subaru. Note that Toyota has always listed Subaru and BYD as partners for developing its bZ models (this slide is from Toyota’s announcement of its bZ BEV series). pic.twitter.com/1AOXORICSj

— Bridget McCarthy (@bridgemccarthy_) December 14, 2021

8/…we expect Toyota to favor BYD over other partners, especially for the Chinese market. Not to mention, there is only one battery supplier listed on that slide.

— Bridget McCarthy (@bridgemccarthy_) December 14, 2021

9/ Some on Chinese social media claim to have confirmed this concept model from Toyota’s event today will be the 1st model under BTET. It should be unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show in April 2022, so we’ll see.

BYD's first cars closely resembled Toyota's, now Toyota needs BYD. pic.twitter.com/yRQOBIy0IU

— Bridget McCarthy (@bridgemccarthy_) December 14, 2021