Nikkei Asian Review claims to have inside information on a deal which will shortly be announced concerning Toyota and Mazda. Japan’s largest company is said to be on the verge of not only taking a minority holding in Mazda but also establishing a manufacturing JV in the United States.
4 August update: TMC and Mazda Motor will hold a joint press conference at 19:00 JST
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The Nikkei, which does not name its source, claims that TMC will take a five per cent tranche of Mazda Motor’s shares, while the far smaller Hiroshima-based OEM will in turn become a minor shareholder in Toyota Motor Corporation.
While the firms have until now had small levels of collaboration, this appears to be the first sign of Mazda turning to a far larger partner for its electric vehicle technology. What advantage, if any, the potential deal gives TMC, is unclear.
The location of a co-production plant is not specified by The Nikkei, other than “in the American south” but the capacity is claimed to be a combined 300,000 vehicles per annum for the Toyota and Mazda brands. The models in question would of course be SUVs.
The other JV is to be in the area of “key electric vehicle technologies”. There are, however, no specifics.
Mazda presently manufactures a small car for Toyota at a plant in Mexico. Based on the Mazda2 sedan, the Scion iA became the Toyota Yaris iA from the 2017 model year due to the axing of the Scion brand. Their collaboration in Japan goes back to March 2010, which was when Mazda told the media that it would be licensing Toyota’s hybrid technology “by 2013” for a new, Japan-built model. This car turned out to be the Axela* Hybrid
*Mazda3 in export markets
