When German car manufacturer, Volkswagen bought 19.9% stake in Japanese car manufacturer Suzuki Motors in December 2009 for a price of $2.5 billion, the partnership was termed as mutually beneficial. Everybody had expected the partnership to flourish and rule various car markets around the world.

Volkswagen was expected to benefit from Suzuki’s expertise in small cars, while Suzuki hoped to improve their hybrid technology using help from Volkswagen Hybrid engineers. But just after 1.5 years into the partnership, it seems that all is not right between them. Suzuki Motors has announced that both they and Volkswagen need to go back to the drawing board.

Mr Yasuhito Harayama, Senior Executive VP has stated that there has hardly been any progress since VW bought stakes in Suzuki. He even blamed Volkswagen for influencing Suzuki management. “It was made very clear when we tied up with Volkswagen that we did not want to become consolidated, and that we would remain independent,” he added.