Toyota Discovers It Has To Partner With Other Companies To Make A Better Product

Tradition-bound Toyota is starting to shake it up.

For decades, the Japanese automaking giant has preferred to go it alone, eschewing alliances with other automakers. But Bloomberg News points out that CEO Akio Toyoda is starting to make that change.

Toyoda agreed this month to equip some Toyota cars with BMW diesel engines. It wants to use battery packs from Tesla Motors in some of its electric cars. And remember that both Toyota and Subaru unveiled their own versions of the same car, the Scion FR-S sports car.