BMW, Toyota to cooperate in fuel cell technology

German luxury car maker BMW and Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. said on Friday they had agreed to extend their recently established collaboration and work together on new technologies such as fuel cells. At a joint news conference in BMW's home city of Munich, the German group's chief executive Norbert Reithofer and Toyota president Akio Toyoda announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding "aimed at long-term strategic collaboration in four fields." These were: "joint development of a fuel cell system, joint development of architecture and components for a future sports vehicle, collaboration on powertrain electrification and joint research and development on lightweight technologies," the statement said. "We aim to further strengthen our competitive position in sustainable future technologies," said BMW's Reithofer. Toyoda said that Toyota was "strong in environment-friendly hybrids and fuel cells (while) BMW's strength is in developing sports cars."