Toyota president would consider closer ties with Ford
CARL FREIRE
Associated Press
TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. is willing to consider a broader partnership with Ford Motor Co. if the U.S. auto maker requests it and the conditions were right, the company's president said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday.
News that Toyota Chairman Fujio Cho met in December in Tokyo with Ford Motor Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally at the latter's request has stirred speculation of a potential alliance between the rivals.
Currently, Toyota — which is projected to overtake General Motors Corp. as the world's top auto maker in 2007 — provides components for gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles to Ford through group firms.
Toyota has also licensed several of its hybrid system and emissions purification patents to Ford for America's No. 2 auto maker to use in its hybrid system.
In an interview held Tuesday with Japan's leading business daily, The Nikkei, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said partnering in new areas of business “would be fine provided both sides wanted it.”
If the companies decide on closer ties, it would likely centre on technological development, the paper reported Mr. Watanabe as saying. The possibility “was not zero” that any closer ties could involve something other than hybrid technology, he added.
The Nikkei did not elaborate on whether Mr. Watanabe's comments referred specifically to the technology used in cars or to production technology.
Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said he could not confirm Mr. Watanabe's specific remarks, but said the company's stance has been that it would consider closer ties with other auto makers “if it turns out to be a win-win situation.”
Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford is restructuring in the wake of an earnings slump brought on by sluggish sales of large vehicles.
Mr. Watanabe also spoke in the interview of the company's plans for a small, low-cost vehicle aimed at developing country markets, The Nikkei said. Toyota denied that he offered specific details.
The Nikkei said Mr. Watanabe discussed Toyota's plans for a car equipped with a 1-litre engine that would have a low sticker price of about $6,670 (U.S.). He said the company hoped to release it in the so-called BRICs — Brazil, Russia, India and China — around 2010, and possibly in Japan thereafter, the paper reported.
Toyota's Mr. Nolasco confirmed that the company has been looking into a low-cost vehicle for emerging markets, but he denied that Mr. Watanabe offered specific details about a possible product in the interview.
“Toyota has been studying and considering the possibilities of such a car, but nothing specific has been decided as of yet,” he said. “The levels of motorization in markets like the BRICs show there's room for growth.”
The vehicle reported by The Nikkei would be Toyota's latest strategic car for emerging markets, following the release of its IMVs (Innovative International Multipurpose Vehicles) in 2004.
