On Wednesday, Toyota Motor said that it is discussing “business partnership” with Japanese rival Suzuki Motor Corp to build new technologies than can change the auto industry in “an unprecedented fashion”.
The alliance can have large impact in India considering that Suzuki, through its subsidiary Maruti Suzuki, sells one of every two passenger vehicles in the country. The companies will work together in the area of artificial intelligence and robotics.
“In Japan and India… there will be uncertainty in the future if we continue to just refine our traditional automobile technologies, which we have been working on so far,” Suzuki chairman Osamu Suzuki said.
An alliance, like Nissan and Renault, will help both companies.
“We need to have capability to respond to changes (quickly) in order to survive,” Toyota president Akio Toyoda said.
Suzuki and Toyoda were speaking at a press conference at Toyota’s office in Tokyo.
Suzuki’s last alliance, with German automaker Volkswagen, where it picked up 19.9% stake, fell through.
The Toyota-Suzuki alliance can also help in developing driverless cars, a focus area for all auto majors.
{{/usCountry}}The Toyota-Suzuki alliance can also help in developing driverless cars, a focus area for all auto majors.
{{/usCountry}}“If there is a change in car driving preferences, Toyota doesn’t want to be left out in a market like India,” said Deepesh Rathore, co-founder of London-based Emerging Markets Automotive Advisors. “If you have the volumes that Suzuki enjoys in India, you can implement new technologies at a very low cost.
N Raja, head of sales and marketing Toyota India, told HT in an email response: “We would like to consider what we can do in the Indian market with the understanding that the two companies will keep competing with each other.”
TOYOTA RECALLS PRIUS
Toyota, meanwhile, recalled 340,000 gas-electric hybrid Prius cars around the world on Wednesday, 212,000 of them in Japan and 94,000 in North America, for a defect in their parking brakes. Toyota acknowledged receiving reports of crashes, injuries and deaths.