Toyota: Deepens alliances with Subaru, Mazda and Suzuki to strengthen competitiveness
Restructures group businesses and establishes a joint venture with Panasonic
2020/01/31
- Summary
- Strengthening group competitiveness: Capital alliance with Suzuki, additional stake in Subaru
- Supplier system: Restructuring the business of the entire group from a “home and away” strategy perspective
- Toyota: Strong first-half 2019 financial results, operating profit margin of 9.2%
- Sales Forecast by LMC Automotive: Toyota Group’s light vehicle sales will be 11 million units in 2023
Summary
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| The "Woven City" announced by Toyota at CES 2020 (Source: Toyota) |
This report presents how Toyota is deepening its alliances with its OEM partners (Subaru, Mazda, and Suzuki) and rebuilding its group suppliers to prepare for the profound transformation period said to be occurring once-in-a-century.
Toyota has already made Daihatsu a wholly-owned subsidiary, invested in Subaru and has cross-held shares with Mazda. However, in the August-to September 2019 period, Toyota formed a capital alliance with Suzuki and increased its stake in Subaru to 20%, making it an equity-method affiliate. Toyota, Daihatsu, Subaru, Mazda, and Suzuki collectively had total sales of 16.29 million units in FY2018, reflecting a 57.4% market share of the seven Japanese passenger car manufacturers. In collaboration with Mazda, Toyota will start joint operations of a new plant in Alabama, U.S.A., and will jointly develop EVs with Mazda and Subaru.
In addition, Toyota is rebuilding its group supplier businesses from its “home and away” strategy perspective. “Home” refers to its businesses and regions that have a competitive advantage. By reorganizing the businesses within the group and consolidating them into “home” companies, it expects to improve the productivity and strengthen the competitiveness of the entire Toyota group. In some cases, several group suppliers have set up joint ventures for the CASE technologies and cooperate in the development of specific products.
Furthermore, Toyota and Panasonic have jointly established Prime Life Technologies Co., Ltd., a joint venture related to the town development business. Panasonic will also cooperate mainly with the joint venture regarding “Woven City”, a prototype city announced at CES 2020 in January 2020.
As reference material, the summary of Toyota's consolidated financial results for the period from April to September 2019 in comparison with other major OEMs at home and abroad has been included in this report. Toyota's stable performance is outstanding.
Related reports:
CES 2020: Next-generation mobility initiatives by Japanese manufacturers（Jan. 2020）
Asian OEM Electrification Strategies, Including EV Product Timelines - Part 1（Dec. 2019）
Tokyo Motor Show 2019: Toyota Exhibits an Array of EVs, FCVs, and Mobility Solutions（Nov. 2019）
Suzuki: Alliance with Toyota, recall, and electrification（Sep. 2019）
Toyota: Electrified vehicle plan pulled ahead 5 years to 5.5 million units by 2025（Jul. 2019）
Japanese OEM FY2018 Financial Results: 1.9% increase in sales, 11.5% decrease in operating profit（Jun. 2019）
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