Ford & Toyota are talking to each other. About what really isn't known. However, whatever they were talking about was enough to get Ford's CEO to make a 24 hour round trip to Tokyo....
Ford chief executive Alan R. Mulally and Mark Fields, the head of Ford’s operations in the Americas, met with Toyota chairman Fujio Cho and other senior Toyota executives, senior officials at both companies who spoke on condition of anonymity said today.
The trip came as Ford is mired in one of the worst financial crises in its history, while Toyota is in its strongest position since it was founded 70 years ago.
Toyota ranks as the world’s second biggest car company, behind General Motors, which it is likely to pass next year to take the number one spot. Ford is the third biggest, having been passed by Toyota in 1983. Last week, internal projections by Ford showed the company expects Toyota to unseat it as the No. 2 company in the American market during 2007.
Toyota claims that it was just a "get acquainted" meeting....
Toyota spokeswoman Yasue Kato said Cho and Mulhally "met and exchanged greetings," but refused to offer any further details, including when and where the talks took place. She added that Toyota "regularly holds meetings with other automakers when the opportunity presents itself."
Even though the nature of the discussions isn't really known, analysts don't "believe" these talks are full scale merger negotiations. Instead, it's believed Ford may be negotiating for Toyota's Hybrid Technology....
Japanese press reports said executives from Ford and Toyota discussed development of hybrid-electric and hydrogen powered cars and ways that Toyota could help Ford improve its manufacturing efficiency.
Toyota, the world’s leader in hybrid-electric cars, licensed hybrid technology to Ford when it was designing the Ford Escape, a small sport utility vehicle. Ford also has its own hybrid program, but it cut back on hybrid development earlier this year, when it decided to place more of an emphasis on developing flexible fuel vehicles that can run on gasoline and another type of fuel, such as ethanol.
Most people are already aware of Toyota's Prius, which uses their Hybrid Synergy Drive. At the Detroit Auto Show early next month, Toyota will roll out the FT-HS Hybrid Sports Concept. A hybrid car with 400hp, that will do 0-60 in 4 seconds, with Toyota hoping to produce a production model for around $35,000....
The FT-HS Hybrid Sports Concept that Toyota will roll out at the Detroit auto show is about the size of the Lexus SC 430. The HSC measures 170.3 inches from tip to tail, and it has a wheelbase of 104.3 inches. It's 73.2 inches wide and 50.8 inches high. Much like the SC 430, the front track is narrowly wider at 63 inches, while the rear track measures 61.2 inches.
This is meant to be a 2+2-style car, large enough for occasional backseat passengers. We probably shouldn't be surprised that it's nearly as big as a Corvette, since it's going to take a lot of space to package an engine, a fuel tank, an electric motor and a battery pack. The restrictive trunk volume of the Lexus GS 430h shows us just how difficult this task can be.
The HSC's long wheelbase should help balance the weight of the sizable battery pack that will be required. In fact, the HSC's weight distribution might even approach the magic mean of 50-percent front/50-percent rear as a result.
Ford shares were up nearly 2% in today's trading, after Wall Street analysts saw the threat of Ford Motor Company falling into full bankruptcy receding a bit. However, the stock has fallen almost 50% since 2005. Ford has suffered around a 25% decline in U.S. market share since the mid-1990s. Ford lost $7 Billion during the first 9 months of 2006. Over the next six years, as many as 30,000 hourly and salaried jobs (more than a 1/4 of their total work force in North America) & 14 plants are expected to be eliminated. Ford is already offering as much as $100,000 in severance packages to workers who will forego all future benefits, except their pension, along with other inducements to meet the needed job cuts....