MaximaPower

iTrader: (3)

might have been posted already, but i jus saw an article on freshalloy.com:

Nissan and Toyota are joining forces to develop vehicles that they will sell in the US market. Okay, now that enthusiasts have fallen over in their chairs, let’s fill in the details. Executives from Nissan and Toyota announced a plan in Tokyo on Monday to work together to develop and build parts for hybrid vehicles. According to the Financial Times, the motivation for the deal comes from both ends. Toyota, which already sells hybrid-powered cars, is struggling to sell enough to earn a profit. Nissan, on the other hand, is said to have “well-developed” hybrid technology that it is having a hard time justifying commercially.

So basically, the deal could allow Nissan to bring in enough volume for Toyota to make a profit off of the technology while Nissan hopes it can share the costs of its technology with Toyota. A Nissan spokesperson told FT, “For us, it means we can get hybrid cars up and running cheaper and quicker. Toyota has been good at getting its technology into production and we have been good at developing very advanced technology."

This new deal places pressure on Honda and Mitsubishi, who are committed to hybrid technology but reportedly could not generate the economies of scale to justify the development costs that the Nissan/Toyota alliance could.

Nissan expects to sell about 20,000 hybrid-powered cars a year in the US by 2006. Toyota’s hybrid vehicle sales are unknown, but speculation abounds that they are losing $10,000 to $15,000 on every hybrid they sell.

According to the Reuters news service Toyota will supply components to Nissan for the hybrid system, but that Nissan will develop its own engine and “application of the system” on its vehicles. Nissan also says that the technology sharing could make its way to its partner and majority owner, Renault.

-Mike Cervantes

Frank Fontaine

Without getting into the details it would seem like a win for Nissan and a lose for Toyota. Toyota enjoys economies of scale and platinum relationships with suppliers, why would they let Nissan get a piece of the action? Plus Nissan's questionable build quality and suppliers would tarnish the Toyota name imho. Toyo already has a hybrid that is selling here in the US, I saw them at the Inner Harbor.

motectransam

whenever there's a large environmental and/or technology initiative that normally wouldn't add to the company's bottom-line, there's always collaboration going on.

There's also a lot of collaboration going on with HCCI and CAI (search the net for details) combustion technology.