Toyota Says Its Willing to Consider Broader Partnership with Ford

Washington DC January 17, 2007; The AIADA newsletter reported that in an interview with Japan's Nikkei paper, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said his company is willing to consider a broader partnership with Ford should the U.S. automaker requests it and the conditions were right, reports The Globe and Mail.

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 center 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.

At the request of Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally, Toyota Chairman Fujio Cho met with the new Ford chief in Tokyo in December to discuss matters behind closed doors, which has caused a stir in the press.

Toyota currently provides components for gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles to Ford and has also licensed the automaker several of its hybrid system and emissions purification patents.

In other news, Toyota Executive Vice President Jim Lentz told an audience gathered for Automotive News' World Congress that the company is currently in the process of studying its projected 10-year growth plan in the U.S. and the plants it will need to build, but it has not decided where those plants will go or how many will be needed.