Toyota and GM to Cooperate on Safety and Environmental Technologies?

Cho said he will meet with General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner later this month, according to Japanese newspaper Nikkei.

Toyota President Fujio Cho said he will meet with General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner later this month. (Photo: Toyota Canada)

Wagoner is expected to join Cho for the meeting on May 14th, together with GM's research and development chief, Larry Burns.

The newspaper also said that Toyota's honorary chairman, Shoichiro Toyoda, has planned to meet with Wagoner in the U.S. later in 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. It's a moot point anyway, as a Toyota spokesman soon

Market analysts have long anticipated a deeper relationship to form between Toyota and General Motors. (Photo: Toyota Canada)

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 USD 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.