WORLDS collide as car-makers, once fierce rivals, embrace alliances and cross shareholdings to fight larger competitors. But what is the rationale, why do some companies take on more than one collaborator, and how does this affect the retail network?

Toyota and Mazda are the latest to go public with their affair, though they have been cosy since 2015, and in May last year were working on a joint factory in the US.

But isn’t Toyota also wooing Suzuki? Last year they announced plans of working together, Suzuki picking up Toyota’s technology – especially on hybrids – while Toyota would benefit from Suzuki’s clever marketing and introduce it to Suzuki’s grip on the huge Indian market.

And didn’t Mazda last year strike a deal with Isuzu to build a new ute together, the replacement for the BT-50 and D-Max?

This week, Toyota and Mazda came out by admitting they had a five per cent cross shareholding, that they will build a joint-venture plant in the US – where Toyota has factories but Mazda does not – and both will share electric vehicle, safety and autonomous vehicle technology.

The US connection is important. Mazda wants a bigger share in the US and can’t commit to a plant on its own. Mazda imports cars into the US from Mexico and Japan, and is therefore on the nose with President Trump. Toyota will win extra brownie points in the US by ramping up US production and employing more Americans, and Mazda would give the factories more work.

Toyota has stated that the plant is a long way off – 2021 to be exact – but that it would be on a grand scale, making about 300,000 vehicles a year, employing about 4000 Americans and cost $US1.6 billion ($A2 billion).

What will they make and will it impact on Australia? Toyota wants the Corolla and Tacoma – equivalent in size and practicality to the HiLux – made at the new factory. Mazda will produce a truck that shares the new Tacoma’s underpinnings.

Both aim to stave off growing production of trucks by Chevrolet and Ford – especially the same-size Ranger that starts production in Michigan in late 2018 – and curtail a fresh flood of trucks from Nissan and even Mercedes-Benz (X-Class) and Volkswagen (Amarok).

Will Australia get the new Mazda truck from the US? Unlikely.

Mazda sealed a deal with Isuzu in May this year to joint-venture the production of a ute to replace the Mazda BT-50 and Isuzu D-Max. The deal ends Mazda’s relationship with Ford that resulted in the current BT-50 and Ranger.

Mazda and Isuzu will build right-hand-drive trucks off the same production line in Thailand to serve existing markets in South-East Asia, Australia and perhaps South Africa. Though the ink is barely dry on this agreement, it is unlikely to be changed.

So Australia will get a Mazda ute made in Thailand shared with Isuzu, and in the US will sell its left-hand drive Mazda-badged truck built from shared components with the Toyota Tacoma.

For dealers in Australia, it will test their mettle in marketing. Mazda and Isuzu will have a similar product and defining differences will be important to gain sales advantages.

But it could be worse. If you’re a Nissan dealer, remember that the Navara is competing in a busy ute market that will be also occupied by the Mercedes-Benz X-Class and Renault Alaskan which are all built on the same platform. In the future this could also include the next Mitsubishi Triton given it is now part of the Renault-Nissan alliance and the company has suggested model sharing would make sense.

As a last word, this link between Toyota and Mazda is unlikely to expand. It may be used in other countries to generate sales but Toyota can’t buy – or even increase – this shareholding in Mazda because it has too many such alliances.

Toyota has shares in Hino and Daihatsu and has a 43.8 per cent grip, by sales, on the Japanese vehicle market. The problem is the Japanese antitrust – or competition – regulations that state no one company can have more than 50 per cent of the market.

Toyota also has 16.5 per cent of Subaru where about four per cent of the arrangement produces the Toyota-badged 86 coupe. That’s about 48 per cent of the market.

Then to add in Mazda’s share, it takes it over the 50 per cent stake. Toyota also has a partnership agreement with Suzuki but it has not led to vehicle production.

By Neil Dowling