BEIJING: Toyota Motor Corp announced on Monday the launch of a small electric sedan, which will be powered by BYD Co batteries and will be produced and sold in China.

The Japanese automaker said the car would be called the Toyota bZ3. It did not say when the vehicle will be available in showrooms.

It is the second model in the new Beyond Zero (bZ) series of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from Toyota, which has been criticised by activists and green investors for not embracing BEVs quickly enough.

Toyota to start selling small electric sedan in China by year-end

Toyota had planned to unveil the bZ3, which uses BYD’s less bulky Blade batteries, at the Beijing auto show in April, but the event was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.

The bZ3 was developed jointly by Toyota and BYD, Toyota said on Monday.