Was the influence of Taoism on Buddhism responsible for the development of Mahayana?

In this Partially Examined Life podcast the presenters stated that when Buddhism moved into Chinese it naturally was influenced by the pre-existing Taoist philosophy which is uncontroversial. However they then when on to make this stronger claim that > it was the influence of Taoism that was responsible for the > development of Mahayana. That is quite a claim and obviously the real position is more complex. However is there any truth in that statement? Was Taoism instrumental in the development of Mahayana Buddhism?