May 4, 2016– Toyota Motor Corporation has selected EtherCAT as its industrial Ethernet technology of choice and will base its new factories around the world on EtherCAT. The global announcement was made by Morihiko Ohkura, General Manager of the Production Engineering Innovation Division at Toyota Motor Corporation during an EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) press briefing at Hannover Messe 2016.
Ohkura explains: "I am pleased to announce that Toyota Motor Corporation will make the most of EtherCAT in our new factories to be built around the world. We have conducted thorough analysis and evaluation to compare various industrial Ethernet technologies. I believe the performance, determinism and simple wiring characteristics of EtherCAT, in addition to its openness, best fit with the needs of Toyota to evolve production systems with Industrial IoT concepts."
EtherCAT is also an essential part of Toyota’s new IoT deployment strategy: "In order to smoothly introduce the new IoT concept to our factories, it is critical for us to be able to source necessary EtherCAT components in a timely manner. Thus, we strongly encourage our suppliers to prepare high-quality EtherCAT components with competitive cost. In March 2016, I made such an announcement in Japan to inform local suppliers and I would like to take this opportunity at Hannover Messe to communicate our plan to our suppliers around the world."
