Winning new friends - Toyota enters MoU with Southeast Asia's giants in consumer goods and construction

"We can't reach carbon neutrality on our own. It must be a group effort, and include industries other than automobiles," said Chairman Akio Toyoda last year in Thailand, during the 60th anniversary of Toyota's Thai office's founding. Today, the committment has materialized with a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, True Leasing, and Siam Cement Group.

Siam Cement Group is Southeast Asia’s oldest cement company. The CP Group is the owner of Lotus’ (formerly Tesco), Makro, and 7-11 stores. It is also one of the largest supplier of meat products, operating one of the largest poultry farms in the world. True Leasing is a CP Group-affiliated car rental company.

Together with the Toyota-led alliance of Japanese commercial vehicle manufacturers CJPT (Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies Corporation), the 5-party MoU aims to accelerate carbon neutrality projects in Thailand.

CJPT was established in 2021 as a commercial vehicles’ partnership company. It is funded by Toyota, with Executive Vice-President Hiroki Nakajima as its President. Hino, Daihatsu, Suzuki, and Isuzu also contributed to its capitalization.

In Asia, CJPT aims to contribute to the decarbonization of the region’s logistics sector by working with like-minded local partners. CJPT is offering not just alternative powertrains but also sharing Japan’s expertise in improving workload and transport efficiency, thus reducing unnecessary trips and cutting carbon emissions.

CJPT’s work with its Thai partners will focus on three areas - Data Solutions, Mobility Solutions, and Energy Solutions.

For example, the CP Group’s trucks have to make scheduled trips to resupply its 7-11 and Tesco stores, loading the goods on standardized boxes. Due to the nature of supply chain schedules and short shelf live of fresh food, it is not always possible to send the trucks out on a full load. So a lot of the trucks are actually operating below their optimal load.

Initial trials with Toyota’s Data Solutions show that 15% in CO2 reduction is achievable simply by optimizing loading efficiency and delivery routes.

Apart from operating Lotus’ and 7-11, the CP Group is also one of the world’s largest food company, operating huge chicken farms that produce tons of biowaste annually. For Energy Solutions, Toyota is proposing to the CP Group to extract energy from biowaste by deploying biogas capture technology, which the company can then extract hydrogen and use as fuel for their supply trucks.

The full cycle of generating, storing, transporting, and refueling carbon-neutral, locally generated hydrogen will be put to test at this weekend’s Idemitsu Super Endurance Southeast Asia Trophy. Chairman Akio Toyoda will be racing a hydrogen-burning GR Corolla. Kachorn Chiaravanont of the CP Group-owning family will also be participating in the race.

In addition to hydrogen, Toyota plans to conduct a demonstration on energy management at its sites using solar power generation and a Battery Energy Storage System (BEES). The latter functions as a giant power bank, storing excess solar energy generated during the day for use at night.

For Mobility Solutions, Toyota has introduced to its partners a wide range of commercial vehicles – from lightweight kei minicars to an electric Hilux, to a cleaner-burning liquified natural gas (LNG) hybrid Toyota JPN-Taxi with easy-access sliding doors, to fuel-cell electric heavy trucks.

Toyota’s Digital Twin Technology, which can replicate a highly detailed, real-time 1:1 copy of the company’s complex factories in a virtual reality, will be shared with its CP Group and SCG. Having a digital twin of stores and warehouses makes it easy to gather data and simulate multiple scenarios, on how different equipment layout or workflow process can improve efficiency.

Although the current CJPT project is focused on Thailand, the goal is to take the learnings from Thailand and deploy it to other countries with like-minded partners.