Mazda To Get Hybrid Parts From Toyota
News out of Japan yesterday has confirmed that Toyota will be supplying their rival car maker Mazda with components to build hybrid cars. Mazda’s hybrid line won’t be launched until 2013, but the company is already planning a production volume of 100,000 vehicles per year. Mazda previously announced that they would not be producing hybrid vehicles and were instead using their development dollars on other alternative energy projects, like the hydrogen-powered RX-8 pictured above. This move is also a bit surprising considering that Mazda is affiliated with the Ford Motor Company, which has recently met with success at the release fo their Ford Fusion Hybrid.
Toyota will be supplying batteries, motors, and control units to Mazda. Some may wonder why Toyota would want to supply a potential rival with technology that could shrink Toyota’s hybrid market share, but the answer is simple: economies of scale. In most any manufacturing process, the more units of a particular item you produce, the less expensive each one gets. This takes into account a return on investment for building the actual facility that the units are produced in and also the continuing refinement of the manufacturing process. By supplying both themselves and Mazda, Toyota will be able to reduce the cost of each unit produced, and pick up a decent fee from Mazda as well, making Toyota’s hybrid operation even more profitable.
