Toyota Motor Corp. and Isuzu Motors Ltd. said Wednesday they will take a stake in each other to jointly develop next-generation small-sized commercial vehicles with Toyota's subsidiary truck maker Hino Motors Ltd.

Toyota said it will hold a 4.6 percent stake of all issued shares as of the end of September, worth 42.8 billion yen ($393 million), in Isuzu through a third-party allotment, while Isuzu plans to acquire Toyota shares of the same value through a market purchase.

The three companies said they will set up a joint venture named Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies Corp. in April to co-develop small-sized electric and fuel-cell trucks as well as autonomous driving technologies for such vehicles.

Toyota will have an 80 percent stake in the joint venture, while Isuzu and Hino plan to each hold a 10 percent stake.

Toyota and Isuzu initially agreed on a capital tie-up in 2006 to jointly develop technologies for diesel engines, but it was dissolved in 2018 without any major achievements.

"We restarted talks for a tie-up in a bid to bring our strength together," Toyota President Akio Toyoda said in a joint press conference.

"I believe our new partnership with Toyota and Hino will contribute to improving logistics in Japan" by creating a common platform of electrification and self-driving technologies for commercial vehicles, Isuzu President Masanori Katayama said.

==Kyodo

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