Mazda Motor Corp. may be the next carmaker to strike an alliance following plans by Suzuki Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. to team up with overseas manufacturers, investors and analysts say.
The companies are seeking to share costs for developing new models with the latest technology. Mazda may need to do the same as its 40-year-old ties to Ford Motor Co. weaken.
"Carmakers like Mazda with annual sales of about only a million units need to be exploring partnerships to survive," said Yoshiaki Kawano, an analyst in Tokyo at auto consulting company CSM Worldwide.