The Japanese company which has headquarters in Safenwil, a small town in Switzerland, will become a "premier partner" of Swiss Olympic from January 2017.

"We are very excited about this partnership," said Gian Carlo Schmid, the head of sponsoring at Swiss Olympic.

"Toyota is the leading manufacturer of hybrid automobiles and the environmentally friendly cars fit Swiss Olympic's sustainable strategy."

Toyota has taken over as the country's Olympic Committee vehicle partner from Swiss company AMAG.

"We are convinced that Swiss Olympic fits perfectly with our brand," said a spokesperson for Toyota.

This news comes with Swiss Olympic pondering four candidates as they seek to select a project to bid for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The four projects have taken part in a third workshop during the "consultation" process.

Five proposals had previously been revealed by Swiss Olympic, but the "Central Switzerland 2026" project is no longer in contention to be a candidate.

The "Olympic Winter Games 2026 Graubünden and partners" project took part in the latest workshop, along with the multi-region efforts "2026 - Games for our future" and "Switzerland 2026".

The "Swiss Made Winter Games", a project from Western Switzerland, was also present.