Toyota sells 10.15 mln vehicles in 2015, stays No. 1 automaker

“Toyota is benefiting from the strength of the USA auto market, and we expect it to continue to grow this year, so the company should keep its crown”, said Yoshiaki Kawano, a Tokyo-based analyst at research firm IHS. But effective collaboration required Toyota to define its relationship with Daihatsu, which competes with Suzuki in Japan.

Toyota owns 51.2 percent of Daihatsu, which like Suzuki, specializes in 660cc minivehicles, a segment particular to Japan, as well as compact cars.

Toyota Motor and SuzukiMotor have begun talks on a tie-up, looking to take advantage of each other’s know-how and capitalize on demand for compact cars in India and other emerging economies.

Suzuki formed a capital and business alliance with Germany’s Volkswagen AG in 2009, but the two failed to reconcile differences between their management styles and separated in 2015.

The shares of Suzuki climbed 10% in morning trade on Wednesday, while Toyota’s shares were up 3.6%.

Both carmakers denied the rumours, but Suzuki also saw its shares jump by 11.4%.

Suzukiand the Toyota group will discuss the potential partnership from a variety of angles, with cross-shareholdings a possibility.

Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. sold over 10 million units worldwide in 2015 and the sale, beating Volkswagen and General Motors, earned the giant carmaker the world’s top car-seller spot for the fourth straight year, it said on Wednesday.

Toyota is also facing sluggish sales in Thailand and Indonesia while a Japanese consumption tax hike planned for next year could spark a rush in buying – and subsequent slowdown as prices go up.

Daihatsu traces its beginnings to March 1907, when two academics and a group of businessmen set up a company in Osaka, Japan’s second-largest city, to produce internal combustion engines.

Toyota first tied up with Daihatsu in 1967 and has owned its majority stake since 1998.