Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it is willing to discuss sharing its hybrid vehicle technology with rivals, including U.S. automaker General Motors Corp.
"If another company -- not just GM but other automakers, too -- were to express an interest in the technology, we would not turn that down," Toyota Chairman Hiroshi Okuda was quoted by spokesman Tomomi Imai as saying. "We would be willing to open discussions."
Okuda's comments follow GM's denial Sunday of an online news report that the two automakers were in talks about a possible technology-sharing pact that could result in a quicker, wider offering of hybrid vehicles.
"There is no truth to that whatsoever," Scott Fosgard, GM's advanced-technology spokesman, said Sunday in New York.
Imai also denied that Toyota and GM were already in talks.
Toyota and Honda Motor Co. currently dominate the expanding market.