Toyota, Hyundai chairmen team up to host rare race event

By Heesu Lee

The chairmen of Asia’s two largest automakers made a rare joint public appearance at an event to showcase their companies’ high-performance vehicles, underscoring the trend of rivals joining hands in the face of electrification.

Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Akio Toyoda and Hyundai Motor Group Chair Euisun Chung were at a racing festival in Yong-in, south of Seoul, over the weekend. The event displayed rally cars from both companies and several future-oriented models, including hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Toyota and Hyundai — the world’s No. 1 and No. 3 automakers by sales respectively — are facing intensifying competition in electric vehicles from Tesla Inc. and Chinese carmakers such as BYD Co., the biggest maker of EVs. As Asia’s top legacy automakers, they share similar challenges and ambitions. Both are proponents of hydrogen-powered vehicles in their push toward carbon neutrality.

Sunday’s festival marks the first time the two auto giants have teamed up to hold an event, raising the prospect of further collaboration. Earlier this month, Toyota’s research unit and Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics Inc. announced a plan to jointly develop humanoid robots with artificial intelligence.

Global car companies are increasingly joining forces on production and research and development to lower costs and boost competitiveness. Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. in August announced a joint research agreement to develop a platform and technologies for next-generation software-defined vehicles.

Hyundai has also partnered with General Motors Co. around joint product development, manufacturing and future clean energy technologies.

At the event, Hyundai showcased rally cars from its World Rally Championship program, including the i20 N Rally 1 Hybrid and i20 N Rally 2.

Toyota’s Gazoo racing unit presented its GR Yaris Rally 1 Hybrid, GR Yaris Rally 2, GR Supra, and GR86 among others.