Meetings are Set Up between Top Executives Later this Month
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, or so the age-old saying goes. It seems that General Motors, struggling to meet
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| General Motors is looking to Toyota Motor Corp. for the latest in safety and environmental technologies. (Photo: Toyota Canada) |
Yesterday, the same day that Standard & Poor's 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 was reported to have said a cooperative deal could be struck between Japan's number one automaker and the world's number one automaker.
The two company's 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 to North American Lexus customers, so a cooperative effort in meeting strict new safety and environmental regulations wouldn't be out of the ordinary.
Toyota is a world leader in environmental technologies, with what will soon be the largest lineup of hybrid-electric
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| 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 Canada) |
This said, GM recently announced plans to combine efforts with DaimlerChrysler 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.