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Toyota Motor Corp. (Nasdaq:TOYOY - news) and General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) have reached a five-year agreement to jointly develop cars and trucks that can run off fuel cells and other environmentally friendly alternative-fuel technology.
''Pooling our efforts should result in commercially viable advanced technologies faster and at a lower cost to our customers, and as breakthroughs are reached, suppliers will be able to count on the volume of production from two of the world's largest automakers,'' GM vice chairman Harry Pearce said in remarks prepared for delivery today at a Detroit news conference.
GM, the world's largest automaker, and No. 3 Toyota have worked on several joint ventures, including a California-based venture to produce small cars and to market of GM's Cavalier cars through Toyota's sales network in Japan. They had been in talks on the advanced technology venture since last year.
The new venture will involve research and development of electric, hybrid electric and fuel-cell technology. Hybrid electric vehicles typically combine an electric motor with other power systems.
The deal is to last through 2004, the year that GM, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - news) and DaimlerChrysler AG (NYSE:DAJ - news) have said they plan to be ready to produce fuel-cell vehicles.
Today's announcement also comes a day before Ford, DaimlerChrysler and Ballard Power Systems Inc., a fuel-cell developer, plan to announce a deal with oil companies to develop a demonstration fleet of fuel-cell powered vehicles in California.
Fuel cells produce electricity using a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen and produce little or no emissions. The technology was developed for use in spacecraft, but problems in supplying and storing hydrogen have hampered plans to use it for cars. So far, fuel cells remain prohibitively expensive.
DaimlerChrysler has been working on technology to convert gasoline to hydrogen on board the car, eliminating the need for a heavy, expensive hydrogen storage tank.
GM and Toyota have been working on alternative-fuel vehicles for years. GM was the first to mass-market an electric car, the EV1, which has failed to catch on in the markets where it is being leased. Toyota brought the first hybrid electric car to market, the Prius, in Japan two years ago. The Prius uses gasoline and electricity and is scheduled to go on sale in the United States and Europe next year.
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