Toyota invests $600m in China’s Didi
Japan’s Toyota Motor Corporation has agreed to invest $600 million in Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing and to expand their joint venture focused on services for Didi’s drivers.
The partnership builds on a pilot program launched last year to provide vehicle leasing services for Didi drivers and to help connect their cars to Toyota’s proprietary Mobility Services Platform, which offers maintenance reminders and safe driving guidance. Toyota and Didi will roll out the program nationwide, widen the range of services, and promote the use of electric vehicles.
Toyota’s investment follows a $1.6 billion commitment to Didi by SoftBank announced earlier this year, the Japanese internet giant’s third investment in the company. Didi is also backed by strategic partners such as Booking Holdings, which operates a number of online travel businesses worldwide and committed $500 million last year.
“Didi is committed to helping our cities achieve new energy and smart transportation goals with partners from home and abroad,” said Stephen Zhu, a senior vice president of Didi, in a statement. “We look forward to combining DiDi's expertise in AI-based large-scale mobility operations and Toyota's leading connected vehicle technology to build a next-generation intelligent transportation framework for sustainable cities.”
Didi is the third major ride-hailing start-up backed by Toyota, which has already made significant commitments to Southeast Asian counterpart Grab, as well as the segment’s global leader Uber. All of its investments in the space have been accompanied by strategic partnerships aimed at leveraging Toyota’s automotive expertise for the start-ups’ benefit, while expanding the market for the Japanese company’s vehicles.
Toyota’s peers have also made similar inroads into Asia’s ride-hailing sector. Hyundai and Yamaha Motor are fellow investors in Grab, and Mitsubishi Corporation recently expanded its commitment to the Series F round of Indonesia-based Go-Jek.
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