Toyota taking 5% stake in Mazda with new joint US assembly plant

[hoodlum]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-maz...-idUKKBN1AJ2J1

(Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) would take a roughly 5 percent stake in Mazda Motor Corp (7261.T) to establish a U.S. auto plant and develop key electric vehicle technologies, the Nikkei reported.

The deal could be announced as soon as Friday, the newspaper said. (s.nikkei.com/2wpAbhk)

The Japanese automakers would discuss building a plant together in southern United States through a joint venture, Nikkei reported.

The companies would build sport utility vehicles (SUVs) jointly at the plant, which has an annual output capacity of up to about 300,000 vehicles, and sell them through their own channels, according to Nikkei.

The partnership would ease the companies' investment burden and allow them to share expertise in particular production technologies, Nikkei said, adding that the automakers were also planning to develop electric vehicle technologies jointly.

[SirWanker]

and of course el Trumpo will claim he was responsible for this.............

[Default User]

and of course el Trumpo will claim he was responsible for this.............

Until he starts a war against Japan...

[Jeff-TheBiz]

Not surprised...

Mazda has been building the Toyota Yaris for over a year....

[Captain Mazda]

Spot on. The 3rd gen has been a prime example of the cookie cutter car designs void of any personality that plague the automobile industry.

[Flunk]

Hopefully this means Mazda will have money to develop some more interesting cars.

[hoodlum]

It looks like Mazda will be using Toyota's new Entertainment system.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Dea...d-car-software

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor and Mazda Motor plan to jointly develop a smart-car control platform for their next-generation vehicles.

The Japanese automakers, which recently agreed to a capital tie-up, will share a core system in charge of car navigation, music and video, and connections to smartphones. Toyota is developing this "brain" powered by the open-source Linux operating system and is bringing in Mazda for further streamlining.

Mazda and Toyota will develop their own features and applications separately to run on the control system. But the shortage of software developers in the Japanese auto industry pushed the pair to develop the platform together.

New Toyota Camrys debuting in the American market this summer will include the core system. The aim is to make communications equipment a standard feature in all cars sold in the U.S., Japan and China by 2020.

From late fiscal 2018, Mazda will roll out new vehicles offering 20-30% improvements in fuel economy. The first of these, a retooled Axela -- known as the Mazda3 outside Japan -- is expected to also get the infotainment control system first. Other offerings are seen receiving it in stages.

The Mazda Connect in-car infotainment system will be updated in conjunction with sharing the control platform with Toyota. High-speed communications equipment will be included, and Mazda will enlist the aid of domestic cellular carrier and Toyota partner KDDI in maintaining a network.