Top execs of Toyota, Ford met last week
NAGOYA (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Fujio Cho met with Ford Motor Co. President and CEO Alan Mulally last week in Tokyo, a top Toyota executive said Wednesday, raising speculation that a tieup is in the works.
"We held talks at the request of Ford," Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe told reporters in the morning. He declined to elaborate on what the two discussed.
Observers say Toyota and Ford may try to forge an alliance based on Toyota's desire to maintain friendly relations with the U.S. auto industry and Ford's need to reconstruct itself with help from Toyota's cutting-edge hybrid engine and production technologies.
Prospects for global reconfiguration of the auto industry were raised earlier this year when Nissan Motor Co., Renault SA of France and General Motors Corp. got together to examine the possibility of a three-way alliance.
Although the proposal fizzled out, it came at a time when Toyota, Japan's top carmaker, is set to overtake GM as the world's top-selling automaker in 2007.
On Dec. 22, Toyota said it has set a global sales target for the coming year of 9.34 million units, up 6 percent from its sales projection for 2006.
Many analysts predict that GM, which has held the No. 1 position since 1931, will find it difficult to substantially increase vehicle sales in both 2006 and 2007. In 2005, it churned out 9.17 million units on the back of ongoing restructuring efforts.
Ailing Ford, the world's No. 3 automaker, is also pushing ahead with restructuring measures. It already has closed 16 plants and has slashed its workforce.
For the July-September period, Ford booked a net loss of $ 5.8 billion, up sharply from the $ 284 million loss it booked a year earlier.
Toyota is said to be concerned about its earnings disparity with the U.S. automakers, fearing it could be a cause of Japan-U.S. friction.
The Wall Street Journal said in its electronic edition Tuesday that industry observers consider the possibility of Toyota taking over Ford unlikely because of "the problems plaguing the Dearborn, Mich., automaker as well as the Ford family's control."
Toyota and Ford could explore working together on developing compact cars, some observers said, but Toyota is said to be putting priority on a friendly tieup with GM. The two companies have been running a joint venture, New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., in the U.S. since 1984.
Ford meanwhile has a 33.4 percent stake in Mazda Motor Corp. and has been developing compacts with the Hiroshima-based automaker.
Recently, Toyota has formed closer ties with other Japanese automakers that were partially owned by GM.
Its acquisition of a 5.9 percent stake in Isuzu Motors Ltd. helped it gain access to valuable diesel technology after the truck maker and GM ended a capital alliance in April that dated back to 1971.
Toyota also took an 8.7 percent stake last year in Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the maker of Subaru brand cars, after it severed a capital tieup with GM that started in 1999.
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