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Toyota and GM to Cooperate on Safety and Environmental Technologies?

Meetings are Set Up between Top Executives Later this Month

If you cant beat em, join em, or so the age-old saying goes. It seems that General Motors, struggling to meet financial commitments while under pressure from lagging sales, is looking to Toyota Motor Corp. for the latest in safety and environmental technologies.

Yesterday, the same day that Standard & Poors cut GM and Ford debt ratings to junk status and Toyota and Nissan were shown to have increased spending on incentives in April, during what was another record setting month, in order to pull in a larger portion of the new vehicle market, Toyota President Fujio Cho

General Motors is looking to Toyota Motor Corp. for the latest in safety and environmental technologies. (Photo: Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.)

was reported to have said a cooperative deal could be struck between Japans number one automaker and the worlds number one automaker.

The two companys have enjoyed an affinity in other areas of business over the years, such as co-developing products like the Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix in their joint venture NUMMI production facility in California, plus a short lived program where OnStar was offered

Toyota is a world leader in environmental technologies, with what will soon be the largest lineup of hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV) in the industry. (Photo: Lexus)

to North American Lexus customers, so a cooperative effort in meeting strict new safety and environmental regulations wouldnt be out of the ordinary.

Toyota is a world leader in environmental technologies, with what will soon be the largest lineup of hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV) in the industry, including the Toyota Prius and Lexus RX 400h, plus the upcoming Toyota Camry Hybrid, Toyota Highlander Hybrid and Lexus GS 450h. More HEV announcements are expected.

This said, GM recently announced plans to combine efforts with DaimlerChrysler

Toyota President Fujio Cho said he will meet with General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner later this month. (Photo: Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.)

in developing a new dual-mode full-hybrid system, that is reportedly well under way. The General is also a leader in fuel-cell integration, shown in its Hywire and Sequel concepts, which incorporate the Autonomy skateboard-like driveline architecture. It is unclear then, which environmental related products GM would be interested in acquiring from Toyota.

Cho said he will meet with General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner later this month, according to Japanese newspaper Nikkei. Wagoner is expected to join Cho for the meeting on May 14th, together with GMs research and development chief, Larry Burns.

The newspaper also said that Toyotas honorary chairman, Shoichiro Toyoda, has planned to meet with Wagoner in the U.S. later in

Market analysts have long anticipated a deeper relationship to form between Toyota and General Motors. (Photo: Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A.)

the month, on May 24, but there is no word as to whether the subject matter will deviate from the May 14th talks.

Interestingly, it has only been a week since Cho offered the possibility of raising Toyota prices as an olive branch to curb market share losses experienced by U.S. manufacturers. This move, however, would most likely only make Toyota more profitable. Its a moot point anyway, as a Toyota spokesman soon denied that the company was considering increasing prices.

While there is no concern of General Motors going out of business by any stretch of the imagination, the automaker suffered its worst losses since narrowly avoiding bankruptcy in 1992; a $1.1 billion quarterly loss for Q1 2005.

Market analysts have long anticipated a deeper relationship to form between Toyota and General Motors, with speculators questioning whether the well-funded Japanese giant will one day purchase a significant portion of GM.

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