Toyota Motor Corp. will pay $311 million to raise its stake in Fuji Heavy Industries to 16.5 percent, and the two companies said Thursday they will expand their ties and develop cars together. Toyota said the step is part of its plans to revamp business alliances with Fuji Heavy, the Japanese automaker of Subaru cars, and Daihatsu Motor Co., a Toyota subsidiary that makes small cars. The move will also expand the scope of the joint car production among the three.
Fuji and Toyota will also develop a car together, a compact, rear-wheel drive sports car, targeted by 2011, they said, without elaborating on other details of the sports car.
"The alliance with Fuji Heavy is a win-win situation," Watanabe said. "We can count on Fuji's superb engineering."
Read Article