TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. is in final talks with BMW to supply the German automaker with diesel engines for use in a subcompact model, a major Japanese financial newspaper said Friday.
Toyota may begin furnishing a newly designed 1,400 cc diesel engine to BMW as early as next year, and later increase its annual supply of the engines to 30,000 units in 2003, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said, without citing sources. The report did not specify figures for 2002.
Toyota officials were not available for comment Friday, a national holiday in Japan.
The Nihon Keizai said Toyota and BMW were ironing out such details as the price of the diesel engine, which was originally developed for Toyota’s subcompact Vitz model, called Yaris in the European market.
BMW plans to mount Toyota’s environmentally friendly diesel engines in its subcompact Mini, the report said.
Toyota will spend about 20 billion yen ($161 million) this year to refurbish a production line at the Kamigo plant in central Japan for mass production of the diesel engines, the report said.
Last week, Toyota and French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen signed a 1.5 billion euro ($1.28 billion) agreement to jointly develop and produce small cars for the European market.
