Toyota has denied a German magazine report that it was considering building derivatives of Mercedes-Benz’s A-and B-class cars on its own platform to better utilise its European plants in the long term.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“We are denying this completely,” Toyota spokesman Yuta Kaga in Tokyo told Reuters on Thursday. “There is no truth to anything written in the article.”
Citing sources at Toyota, Auto Motor und Sport had reported on Wednesday the automaker was thinking about the generation of Mercedes compacts due to follow the upcoming version, which is scheduled to be introduced in 2011.
Typically, model lifecycle can last at least 6 years, so any production at a Toyota factory would not be likely until at least 2017.
According to the article, the two companies could also look at sharing development costs and even examine the possible joint production of Toyota’s Lexus LS flagship luxury saloon and its Mercedes counterpart, the S-Class, the best-selling car in its segment.
Daimler called the report “speculation”, declining to comment further, Reuters added.
