导读：丰田是混合动力技术的领头羊，最近传出丰田将分享它的油电技术，完整出售给其他竞争车厂使用。此举一方面将促进其他车企在混合动力领域的发展，促进全球减排，另一方面可帮助丰田加速回收研发成本。不过也有业内人士透露，丰田出售混动技术的主要原因是相关专利即将到期，趁早卖还可以挣两个钱。

 

鉴于混动系统的电动机、电控设备、变速箱、引擎等高度关联，丰田选择整套出售，否则会造成供货商的生产与开发难度。目前已和丰田展开技术合作的车厂有宝马马自达、斯巴鲁等品牌。

原文：

Toyota unlocks hybrid tech, could sell to rivals

Toyota is no stranger to licensing its hybrid technology, most notably to Nissan. But now, the company has announced that it will sell ready-made hybrid powertrains to other automakers.

"Toyota suppliers produce a lot of technology which can only be used by Toyota," Toshiyuki Mizushima, president of Toyota's powertrain company, told Reuters. "We want to change that to a system where we develop technology with our suppliers at an earlier stage ... so they can make that technology available to non-Toyota customers."

That would be a boon not just for Toyota, which stands to recoup research-and-development costs, but for the group suppliers the company co-develops its powertrains with. For example, at suppliers Denso and Aisin, the move could diversify its revenue, which Toyota currently accounts for half of. That means increased competition for dominant auto suppliers, like Bosch and Continental, Reuters reports.

"Until now, we couldn't sell the same inverter used in Toyota's previous hybrid system to other customers because it wouldn't fit the motor, or the voltage was different," Denso's Executive Director of Engineering Research and Development Yoshifumi Kato said. "We can avoid this issue if suppliers can sell the entire system. If we take a component developed with Toyota and sell a million to Toyota and another million to other customers, it would double our return on our development costs."

At this early stage, it's not clear when Toyota could begin releasing or selling its powertrains to other automakers. But as increasingly stringent government emissions requirements continue piling up, it's likely we'll see Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive powering other brands sooner rather than later.