How car brands are joining forces to design electric cars

Cast your mind back to the 1980s and the Federal Government’s ‘Button Plan’.

This was a program where the government sought to streamline Australia’s automotive production by culling more than half the nameplates built on local soil. So as not to impact showroom line-ups, the new generation of cars built in Australia were able to be sold wearing different badges.

RELATED: Driving the Toyota BZ4X in Australia for the first time

The Toyota Camry was also a Holden Apollo, the Nissan Pintara could be had as a Ford Corsair, and even the Holden Commodore became a re-badged Toyota Lexen.

While this is one extreme of branded engineering, there is still an element of cross-pollination within our automotive industry, although this time it’s not driven by marketing, but by the benefit of shared development.

Japanese car giants Toyota and Subaru first started working together back in 2005 and soon started sharing manufacturing facilities, and in 2012 the first jointly developed ‘Toybaru’ car, the Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ sports coupe, was launched.

This collaboration has continued to support the development and production of the fully-electric Toyota BZ4X and Subaru Solterra.

Built on the dedicated e-TNGA platform, Toyota's new BZ4X delivers everything you'd expect from a Toyota in terms of how it drives and the standard safety systems on offer, but it is also capable off-road with X-Mode and grip control.

Sharing development for the electric vehicle platform is no different to that of the previous combustion-engined vehicles, where shared investment and knowledge from both brands can bring a vehicle to market faster and more cost-effectively than if each manufacturer started with its own clean sheet of paper.

To take things even further, the ‘Toybaru’ underpinnings that drive the BZ4X/Solterra twins also support the more luxury-oriented Lexus RZ.

This shared development strategy is particularly well suited to electric cars because creating their underpinnings requires something of a balancing act.

"For batteries in BEVs, it’s important to get the right balance of performance/range, size/weight, cost and safety," a Toyota Australia spokesperson tells Drive.

"In addition, globally there are different levels of charging infrastructure and plug standards, so the charging method is also a consideration."

Once the electrification formula is perfected, electric cars provide more flexibility than their petrol-powered counterparts – providing plenty of room for further innovation and interpretation.

"With BEVs, there are fewer moving parts meaning reduced complexity. Additionally, it allows for more flexibility as there are more options for motor placement since the vehicle does not need to be designed for a traditional ICE layout," the Toyota Australia spokesperson explains.

The BZ4X/Solterra is not the only electric car developed in this fashion either.

The Porsche Taycan and Audi E-Tron GT share the same Volkswagen Group ‘J1’ underpinnings, whereby around 40 per cent of the cars are identical. This is largely related to the electrical components, including the battery, electric motors, charging infrastructure and two-speed transmission.

Thanks to the shared parentage of Chinese conglomerate Geely Automotive, the Volvo XC40 (and C40) is the same as the Polestar 2 under the skin. Furthermore, the forthcoming Zeekr 009 luxury electric minivan (also part of the Geely group) is also sold as the Volvo EM90 in some markets.

Sharing these platform components allows brands to concentrate more on the specific design and development of what sits on top, and makes future-proofing battery replacements and software enhancements far more accessible.

For buyers, it's all upside as you end up with more choice and variety in the showrooms.

You can watch the full Drive Electric 3.0 feature here or catch up on 9Now.