Ford, Toyota In Talks On Hybrid Vehicle-BYE BYE OPEC?

NEW YORK, Nov 30 Reuters reported that the WSJ published a report that Ford and Toyota Motor Corp have stepped up discussions on sharing development of an electric-gasoline hybrid vehicle.

Discussions about a hybrid, which could be produced in North America, started in July 2000 after a meeting between Ford's former chief executive, Jacques Nasser, and Toyota chairman Hiroshi Okuda, the newspaper said in its online edition.

The pace of the talks has picked up in the last few months, it quoted John Wallace, executive director of Ford's alternative-propulsion division, as saying.

WSJ quoted a Toyota spokesman in Tokyo who said the Japanese automaker had been talking with Ford on a variety of topics, but that nothing specific had been decided.

``Nothing has changed from before regarding our talks with Ford -- we have been speaking with them on a variety of issues, but there is nothing concrete,'' he said.

Ford pledged last year to improve the fuel economy of its sport-utility vehicles by 25 percent by 2005, and collaborating with Toyota on an electric-gasoline hybrid system could help it do that, the Wall Street Journal said.

Wallace said Ford and Toyota have chosen the general kind of vehicle and hybrid technology to work with, adding that the envisioned joint hybrid system would not be for existing models, but would be used in new ones, the newspaper said.

``There are no agreements imminent,'' Ford spokeswoman Sarah Tatchio said, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The auto makers are also discussing combining back-office functions of their Asian financial operations, according to officials from both companies, the newspaper said.

``The more hybrid friends we have, the merrier,'' the newspaper quoted senior Toyota executive Shin Kanada as saying, because they "give a chance to expand economies of scale in hybrids we cannot achieve alone.