Ford, Toyota Cancel Hybrid-Powertrain Collaboration

Ford and Toyota end an agreement to co-develop a rear-wheel-drive hybrid-electric system for SUVs and pickups.

The auto makers inked the agreement in August 2011, with a goal to jointly develop the new hybrid powertrain to mitigate costs and increase speed-to-market of new products.

In a statement, Toyota says the auto makers have agreed to develop hybrid systems individually, but will continue to evaluate the feasibility of working together on next-generation standards for telematics systems and will consider other areas of future collaboration.

Ford says it plans to move forward on its own development of a RWD hybrid system to be launched later this decade.

“We know what it takes to build world-class hybrids, and we now will build and leverage that expertise in-house,” Raj Nair, Ford group vice president-global product development, says in a statement. “By continuing to develop a rear-wheel-drive hybrid system on our own, we can extend our advanced-hybrid technologies to new vehicle segments.”