Germain Ford Blog

The news of Ford and Toyota signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the intent of co-developing some specific hybrid and telematics technologies generated a whole lot of comments and questions. In fact, over 100 comments were posted in just a few hours.

Derrick Kuzak, Ford Chief of Product Development, took the time to answer many of the questions in this video, such as what is this Memorandum of Understanding really about? Has Ford had agreements like this with other competitors? Does this mean that Ford doesn’t view Toyota as a competitor? Why hybrid technology for trucks now? What will the two companies work on together? How will this benefit Ford customers?

For more on the specific announcement, please see our post yesterday: Ford and Toyota Team on Hybrid System

Original article: http://www.thefordstory.com/our-articles/trucks/f-150/ford-answers-questions-about-the-collaboration-between-ford-and-toyota/

You might think that automakers always have one another in the crosshairs. But it turns out there can be opportunities for collaboration, especially when it comes to advanced technology and bringing it to the public sooner and more affordably than one automaker could do alone. Case in point? Ford and Toyota, the two leading manufacturers of hybrid vehicles, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the intent to jointly develop a hybrid system for light trucks and SUVs.

The two will potentially bring the best of their independently developed hybrid powertrain technology and knowledge to a new co-developed hybrid system, which may be used in rear-wheel-drive light trucks. Ford and Toyota have been working separately on similar new rear-wheel-drive hybrid systems aimed at delivering higher fuel economy in light trucks and SUVs. When the two companies began discussing this potential collaboration, they discovered how quickly they were able to find common ground.
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