Toyota, Isuzu team up to make innovative trucks and autonomous driving technologies

Toyota and Isuzu signed a deal to work together on developing vehicles of the future. To be more specific, the companies are focusing on designing and manufacturing groundbreaking trucks, electric, hydrogen, and autonomous driving technologies.

Toyota Motor Corp and Isuzu Motors unveiled their tie-up on Wednesday, March 24, and this effectively revived their partnership to gain the edge in the competitive market of commercial vehicles. It was shared that Toyota’s truck division, Hino Motors, is joining the deal to develop innovative trucks.

The revival of partnership

As per Reuters, Toyota and Isuzu discontinued their alliance in 2018. Before this, the two companies had a 12-year deal where they agreed to work on diesel engines. Now, Toyota, Isuzu confirmed they have restored their ties and, along with Hino, will create great driving technologies for the future.

As agreed upon, Toyota and Isuzu will each take a 4.6 percent stake from each other. Hino has been the latter’s rival for years and now they will be working toward reaching a common goal that will be beneficial for all three automakers.

In figures, Toyota is acquiring 39 million shares of Isuzu’s common stock and this is worth ¥42.8 billion or around $400 million. Similarly, Isuzu will acquire Toyota shares of the same value. With the three joining forces, they will be able to take up 80% of the market share in Japan’s truck industry.

The firms’ plans with their alliance

Toyota, Isuzu and Hino stated they have set up the Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies for their joint venture. Their aim is to co-develop small-sized electric cars and fuel-cell powered trucks. They will also be advancing to developing technologies for commercial driverless vehicles, The Jakarta Post reported.

“We had tried to jointly develop small diesel engines together but we didn’t really identify specific projects much and we decided to split and find our own ways,” Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s president said. “But then EV became a new common ground for us again, where common research and development could take place.”

Finally, Toyota, Isuzu and Hino signed the partnership deal to contribute to the country by helping reduce emissions through building hydrogen infrastructure. They also expressed their intention to help solve the country’s shortage of drivers by making deliveries more efficient through technology.