BMW and Toyota further inked a deal and announced that collaborative research into the next generation batteries for tomorrow ‘s greener cars has already begun. BMW will benefit from Toyota ‘s buying power and previous research in li-ion battery cells moving forward in addition to BMW sharing diesel technology with the Japanese firm in European markets.

Official release:

BMW Group and TMC Sign Lithium-ion Battery Collaborative Research Agreement

27.03.2012
Tokyo/Munich . BMW Group and Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announce that they have signed an agreement on collaborative research in the field of next-generation lithium-ion battery cells and have begun said research. The agreement follows the memorandum of understanding concerning a mid-to-long-term collaboration on next-generation environment-friendly vehicles and technologies announced by the two companies on December 1, 2011.

The research project being undertaken under the agreement is focusing on increasing the performance and capacity of lithium-ion battery cells through the use of new combinations of materials for cathodes, anodes and electrolytes.

In addition to the collaborative research agreement between BMW Group and TMC, Toyota Motor Europe (TME), TMC’s European subsidiary, and BMW Group entered into a contract—also announced on December 1, 2011—under which BMW Group is to supply highly efficient 1.6 liter and 2.0 liter diesel engines to TME starting in 2014.