I read some article at some Japanese website that Fuji Heavy Industries, maker of Subaru vehicles, decided to stop producing "kei cars"of their own, as a matter of fact, the only Subaru-made kei car, the Stella, will end production on April 2011!
 |
| 2007 Subaru Stella Custom |
This move is planned due to a partnership between Toyota Motor Corporation and Fuji Heavy Industries that they promised for the "Toyobaru coupe"project. As Subaru no longer creates their own "kei cars", instead they sourced it from Toyota-owned Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. Earlier, Toyota plans to sell their own OEM versions of some Daihatsu kei cars this Autumn. It seems it's like a random process but partnership takes a lot of process to get things straight. Now, the Subaru kei car lineup are now consisting of Daihatsu-made vehicles such as the Dias Wagon (based on the Atrai Wagon), Lucra (based on the Tanto Exe), and the second generation Pleo (based on the Daihatsu Mira).
I guess the kei car business is a tough job for the biggest Japanese car manufacturers. Only Daihatsu, Suzuki, and Mitsubishi creates their own kei cars. Subaru, Nissan, Mazda, and soon Toyota, sourced these kei car makers for OEMs.The partnership makes them no longer being "Ärch Rivals" and they are sharing.
No comments:
Post a Comment