Toyota joins Olympic sponsor programme

DPA ©

Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation is to become a leading Olympic sponsor in a partnership deal running until 2024, the IOC said on Friday. The agreement was announced in Tokyo between International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach and Toyota president Akio Toyoda, the IOC said. Toyota joins The Olympic Partner (TOP) programme in the mobility sector to include vehicles and mobility services. It becomes the IOC's 12th TOP Partner and the third company to have committed through the 2024 Olympics, including the 2020 Games in Tokyo "This is a very symbolic day," Bach said. "It is the first time in the successful history of the TOP programme that we have had a mobility category." Toyota is the third Japanese company to become a global Olympic sponsor after Panasonic and Bridgestone. Toyota will join the TOP Programme in 2017, but will have marketing rights in Japan with immediate effect. The IOC said the deal was in line with Olympic reforms under the Agenda 2020 programme approved by the IOC in Decembver in which sustainability is a key element. Toyota will help to "provide sustainable mobility solutions for the Games to help with safer, more efficient mobility, including intelligent transport systems, urban traffic systems and vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems." The partnership "will help deliver a mobility legacy in the host cities and countries," it said.