Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's largest automaker, on Friday denied a report that it was pressing its Hino Motors Ltd. unit and Isuzu Motors Ltd. affiliate to combine their truck-making operations in North America.
"It's not true that we're considering a production partnership between Hino and Isuzu," said Tomomi Imai, a spokesman for Toyota. The Wall Street Journal reported the plan on its Web site Thursday, citing unidentified senior executives.
Tadashi Ioka, a spokesman at Tokyo-based Isuzu, also denied the report.
Toyota owns half of Hino, Japan's biggest maker of heavy-duty trucks, and 5.9 percent of Isuzu, the second-biggest.