Toyota Motor Corporation and Mazda Motor
Corporation announced on Friday that they had agreed on capital tie-up for
exploring technological cooperation or building new factories overseas. Their
partnership will accelerate joint development in basic structure of electric
vehicle, which is required for meeting higher environmental standard in Europe
or North America. Both carmakers made a practical choice in competition over
automobile technology.
Toyota and Mazda will invest ¥50 billion to
each other by October. Toyota will obtain 5.05% of Mazda’s whole share and
Mazda will hold 0.25% of Toyota’s. The share can be increased eventually.
Toyota has already built partnership with Daihatsu, Hino, Isuzu and Subaru. With
the joining of Mazda, Toyota makes a great alliance in car manufacturing in
Japan.
The environment of car production is
quickly changing. Caused by Volkswagen emission scandal in 2015, carmakers are
shifting its management resource to electric vehicle. Major governments
including China, India, France or United Kingdom have announced fundamental
regulation on the cars with engine. Google or Apple has participated in car
business with their high capability in information technology or artificial
intelligence, which is needed for automatic cruise control.
Car users are also changing. Prevalence of
car sharing keeps the people away from buying a car. Car owners are shifting to
being car users. Volkswagen and General Motors are likely to change their
business from car manufacturers to transportation service. In a tendency of
carmakers reaching information technology for analyzing data of clients or
driving, Toyota needed to invest on cutting-edge technologies, leaving
traditional car production to Mazda.
Managers insisted on their seriousness in
international competition. “New players like Google, Apple or Amazon are
appearing. This is unprecedented competition. I don’t want make car commodity,”
told Toyota CEO, Akio Toyota. CEO of Mazda, Masamichi Kogai, explained the partnership
with Toyota as necessary for flexible response to future changes in electric
vehicle.
Toyota announced that it would build new
factory in United States, cooperating with Mazda. With investment of $1.6
billion, new factory will produce Toyota Corolla, Mazda SUV and create 4,000 of
new jobs. “A great investment in American manufacturing!” tweeted President
Donald Trump. But, it is not about manufacturing, but competition over
information technology.
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