January 2007

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Are Ford and Toyota going to get together on hydrogen technology development? Nobody on the outside knows for sure, but the Dec. 27 New York Times reported that Ford chief executive Alan R. Mulally and Mark Fields, head of Ford operations in the Americas, flew to Tokyo for a meeting Wednesday with Toyota Motor Co. chairman Fujio Cho to discuss just that, also hybrid technology, and maybe other things. Immediately after the meeting, Mulally and Fields got on a plane and flew back home - a round trip of about 24 hours, said the Times. Apparently not discussed were ideas such as joint purchasing or shared car production concepts, ideas that were batted around last summer when GM talked at some length to Nissan and Renault which ended without any tangible results (H&FCL Aug. 06). According to the Times account, Toyota, in a statement, described the meeting as a courtesy call. Ford’s website said with terse vagueness, “We meet regularly with other automakers on a variety of topics of mutual interest.”