The world's biggest seller of cars, Toyota Motor Corporation, is to set up a joint venture with China's BYD Company — a company quarter-owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

The two companies announced in a statement Thursday that they would each invest 50% of the capital needed to set up a joint venture which designs and develops battery-electric cars.

No details about the total value of the venture were released.

BYD and Toyota said they plan to staff the new company by transferring engineers and R&D jobs from each of their respective companies.

In the statement, Toyota executive vice president, Shigeki Terashi, said the company had "the same goal to further promote the widespread use of electrified vehicles."