Agence France Presse

Tokyo, May 11:

Toyota Motor and General Motors, the world’s top two automakers, are in talks on a joint venture for fuel-cell vehicles, a report said today. The two companies believe such a joint venture would help them reduce development costs of the environmentally-friendly vehicles, which are use hydrogen as their fuel, Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) said.

Toyota is Japan’s top automaker and ranked second in the world to GM. The pair already cooperate on research and development in environmental auto technologies. GM chairman Richard Wagoner is expected to visit Japan this weekend and hold talks with Toyota Motor president Fujio Cho, the public broadcaster said.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun daily reoported last week Toyota would likely offer GM cooperation on safety and environmental technologies during the top-level meeting. Neither Toyota nor GM could be reached for comment. Cho told reporters yesterday that he would hold a casual meeting with Wagoner when he comes to visit the World Exposition in western Japan, where Toyota is headquartered, but that no special agenda had been set. In stark contrast, GM posted record quarterly net loss in 13 years, Toyota posted annual sales and profits.