Toyota and Suzuki mull partnership

Japanese carmakers Toyota and Suzuki today announced that they are exploring a joint collaboration owing to increasing requirement for technological research in areas such as environment and safety apart from conventional automotive R&D.

The partnership aims to address Suzuki’s sense of uncertainty “in the face of the advanced and future technology R&D” and Toyota’s lag in “establishment of standardisations and partnership with other companies” when compared with competitors in North America and Europe. According to a company statement, “Toyota and Suzuki just started exploring on any opportunities for collaboration, with the belief that it will help both companies solve their respective challenges.”

The carmakers emphasised on the need to also work together on areas such as infrastructure development, as well as the establishment of new industrial standards.

Commenting on the partnership, Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, said, “As the environment which surrounds the automobile industry has been changing drastically, we need to have the ability to respond to changes in order to survive.

The announcement by both auto majors comes over a year after the six-year-long partnership between Volkswagen and Suzuki came to an end.

If the partnership goes through, the companies will join other Japanese carmakers that have also entered into strategic alliances such as Nissan, which recently announced purchase of a controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors, and Toyota, which acquired Daihatsu earlier this year.