TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) and LEXUS will be holding a “New Year’s Greetings from Morizo” event at the TGR booth in East Hall 8 at the Tokyo Auto Salon 2024, which will be held at Makuhari Messe from January 12th to 14th, 2024, where Toyota Chairman and CEO Akio Toyoda will deliver a speech. During the speech, Morizo’s collection of beloved cars was displayed, including the Century GRMN, Lexus LBX (Morizo RR Concept), GR Corolla, and iQ GRMN. Yamaha’s Vino scooter and Suzuki Jimny were also on display.
Of particular interest is the Suzuki Jimny.
Chairman and CEO Akio Toyoda, also known as “Morizo,” shared an anecdote during a roundtable discussion about his favorite cars: “I’ve purchased all my cars from dealerships (except for the Century GRMN). However, the Jimny is popular and hard to come by, so I asked Chairman Suzuki if there was anything he could do about it, and he ended up getting one.”
On August 28, 2019, Toyota Motor Corporation and Suzuki Motor Corporation announced that they had signed a capital alliance agreement. Under the capital alliance, Toyota will invest 96 billion yen in Suzuki, acquiring 4.94% of Suzuki shares, while Suzuki will invest 48 billion yen in Toyota, acquiring 0.2% of Toyota shares. In September 2023, Suzuki will become the third-largest shareholder (up 0.04% from the previous report, holding 4.98%, or 24,000,000 shares).
In March 2019, the two companies announced that they would bring together Toyota Motor Corporation’s electrification technology and Suzuki’s small vehicle technology to further complement their products, and would conduct detailed discussions on joint product development and production collaboration.
Suzuki Motor Corporation, Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd., and Toyota Motor Corporation plan to release a commercial light van equipped with a BEV (battery electric vehicle) system jointly developed by the three companies in 2024. However, sales were delayed due to Daihatsu’s scandal, which was originally scheduled for 2023. This scandal may lead to a stronger relationship with Suzuki in the future! And it may also be meaningful that Morizo’s Suzuki car is displayed next. We are very much looking forward to future collaborations between Toyota and Suzuki.
