Toyota and Mazda enter long term partnership

Japanese automakers Mazda and Toyota have officially entered a long term partnership. As per the official statement, a joint committee will now be set up to evaluate how to utilize each company's respective strengths.

Details on what this partnership will mean for future technologies / products are limited as the companies have chosen to keep the targets of this partnership vague. Developments on the environmental and safety technology front can be expected. Reports suggest that Mazda could receive fuel-cell and plug-in-hybrid technology from Toyota in exchange for SKYACTIV petrol and diesel engines. These speculations are also fuelled by the fact that Toyota President, Akio Toyoda has praised Mazda’s SKYACTIV technologies and the KODO concept.

Previous collaborations between Toyota and Mazda have included the licensing of Toyota's hybrid technologies to Mazda and the production of compact cars for Toyota at Mazda's plant in Mexico.