Toyota Nudges Closer To Mazda. Mazda To Build Toyota Car For U.S.
Based on the Mazda2, Mazda will build a sub-compact for Toyota after Mazda’s new plant in Mexico opens, the company says. The new (Mazota?) will start production around the summer of 2015 at a pace of 50,000 units per year, Toyota says.
This is helpful for both sides. Toyota’s production capacities in North America are working at the limit. Toyota can get a brand new model with loved technology without inordinate development costs.
Cash-strapped Mazda gets financial assistance from Toyota which will pay for a portion of production equipment costs, development costs related to the Toyota vehicle, in addition to a portion of costs related to the plant’s production-capacity increase. Everybody happy.
Mazda’s plant in Mexico is scheduled to start production within the fiscal year ending March 2014, No other information was available on Friday evening in Tokyo. Maybe later.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Makes more sense if they become Scions, not Toyotas.
No big deal. There is no need to read anything more into this than just a convenient use of manufacturing capacity. In the eighties, Toyota sold rebadged Holden Commodores in Oz as Toyota Lexcens. (Named after the designer of the Americas Cup winning yacht) It filled a model gap and gave users another choice and different trim level. Nobody suggested that Toyota and GM were about to merge.
According to MW, the Yaris will be sold alongside the new Mazda 2 derivative, which is kind of crazy, there is not that big of a demand here for 2 very similarly sized cars from the same manufacturer, reminds me of when Chevy used to sell Prizms and Cavaliers alongside each other.
Mazota? Maybe we should go back to "Toyoda" since it seems that Mazda doesn't have the upper hand here.