Toyota, Mazda Band Together To Work On Something Revolutionary

For years, stricter emissions regulations have twisted the arms of automakers into finding new ways to produce and sell cars that have a reduced environmental impact than their predecessors. In light of this, some automakers, like Toyota and Mazda, have decided to partner up.

As Reuters reports, sources say that both companies each have mutually beneficial technology that would complement one another even in the short term should the exchange take place: Toyota’s fuel-cell and plug-in hybrid efforts, and Mazda’s SkyActiv series of fuel-efficient petrol/diesel engine tech.

The report also cites Mazda’s previous attempts at bringing a fuel-cell vehicle to market, but given how nascent that sector is, it makes perfect sense for Mazda to hitch their wagon to Toyota’s as they make the only mass-market fuel cell car, the Mirai. Toyota on the other hand could very well benefit from fitting Mazda's SkyActive engine technology into their own powerplants to increase torque and power while maintaining impressive fuel consumption. 

The world’s largest automaker has been, arguably, the largest proponent of hydrogen fuel-cell cars, with Honda not far behind. They have even released some of its key patents freely to the market, hoping this would spur the development of the vehicles and infrastructure.

We have to agree, the promise of hydrogen fuel cells are huge, not only for generating electricity to power vehicles but to power the entire planet, and any inroads into this technology are well worth the cost and effort. The reason it fits so well with the cars of today is that they have a similar range of travel and refuelling time.

After all, fossil fuel is but a finite and dwindling resource that pollutes and warms our world, whereas hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and the only output from a hydrogen fuel-cell car is water vapour. Think about it, humanity is on the brink of perfecting a renewable and entirely clean source of energy which could be the most important development of the century. That’s amazing on so many levels.

Although officials from Toyota and Mazda have not been forthcoming on details, Japan’s Nikkei business daily reports that the two automakers are aiming to reach an agreement soon.