Ford and Toyota Team Up on Hybrids

DEARBORN (WWJ) -- With new fuel economy rules coming, Ford and Toyota are have decided to work together to build a new generation of hybrid pickup trucks and SUV's.

"Clearly, Ford and Toyota will remain competitors," said Derrick Kuzak, Ford group vice president, Global Product Development. "But, at the same time, by working together and sharing our product development expertise, cost and leveraging our scale, we'll be able to offer our customers more affordable technology sooner."

This new program is specific to rear wheel drive programs, that will be used in larger trucks. As fuel economy standards become tougher, more of those trucks will need to have hybrid systems.

"The fact that we both have very successful front wheel drive hybrid systems already in the market, and will be bringing that knowledge to this co-development process, the next real need was the unique capabilities of a rear wheel drive hybrid systems, for light duty trucks and SUV's," said Kuzak."

The announcement was made at Ford's Innovation and Research Center in Dearborn. Kuzak was joined by Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota executive vice president, Research and Development.

"We have sold about 3.3 million hybrid vehicles in about 80 nations," he said. "Our collaboration with Ford is a move to make hybrid technology more widely available in sport utilities and in trucks. Those kind of motors are indispensible to American customers."

General Motors already has hybrid versions of its large SUV's and pickups. That powertrain came out of a system that was developed jointly with Mercedes and BMW.

Since larger vehicles burn more fuel, they also offer greater opportunities for fuel savings. But, they don't get headline grabbing fuel economy numbers.

The federal fuel economy standard will top 35 miles per gallon in the middle of this decade, and go up about ten more miles per gallon in the following decade.

"As you look over time, our expectation was that more and more of our vehicles on a percentage basis would be electrified; hybrid, plug-in or battery electric." said Kuzak.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally and Toyota President Akio Toyoda have been having discussions on how they could work together on hybrid vehicles. Kuzak said that cooperation on developing hybrid trucks made the most sense.

"They bring new requirements, payload and towing is an example, and they also bring a real focus on affordability, cost effectiveness."

Connect with Jeff Gilbert
Email: jdgilbert@cbs.com
Twitter: @jefferygilbert
Facebook: facebook.com/carchronicles