Isuzu Motors Ltd., Japan's largest maker of light-duty trucks, is seeking talks with General Motors Co. to review a joint engine-making factory in the U.S. that is expected to operate at 30 percent capacity next year.
Ending joint production at the Ohio plant "may be an option," Isuzu President Susumu Hosoi said in an interview at the company's headquarters in Tokyo last week. The venture, DMAX Ltd., is 60 percent owned by GM and makes diesel engines for the Detroit-based automaker.
"Our venture in North America serves large-size vehicles, and there is definitely a question mark on that market," Hosoi said. "I want to ask GM what their thinking is."
Isuzu would be the latest of several automakers including Toyota Motor Corp. to abandon ventures with GM after it emerged from bankruptcy earlier this year. U.S. sales of GM's Chevrolet Silverado full-size pickup, which uses DMAX's engines, have dropped 34 percent in the first 11 months of this year.
GM's spokesman in Shanghai, Michael Albano, said in an e- mail he isn't aware of any plans to change the DMAX joint venture.
GM took over its Canadian carmaking venture with Suzuki Motor Corp. earlier this month after ending an equity alliance with the Japanese carmaker in November 2008. GM terminated a joint production arrangement with Toyota in June, abandoning New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., also known as Nummi, as part of a bankruptcy reorganization.
Isuzu and GM also have a joint diesel engine-production venture in Poland that may also need to be reviewed, Hosoi said.
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