Automotive giants Toyota, Honda, and General Motors bolster ties with their suppliers.
In the latest Plante Moran's 25th annual North American Automotive OEM-Supplier Working Relations Index (WRI) study, Toyota, Honda, and General Motors (GM) have emerged as the top performers, significantly improving their relationships with suppliers.
Toyota, which earned 386 points in the 2025 WRI, up 18 from 368 in 2024, marked its highest WRI score since receiving 415 in 2007. The Japanese automaker's success can be attributed to its superior communication, responsiveness, and engagement with suppliers, helping them reduce costs and manage industry uncertainty through more equitable risk and cost-sharing.
Honda followed closely behind, rising 3 points to earn 347 in the WRI, its highest score since at least 2015. Like Toyota, Honda excelled at fostering strong, balanced financial relationships built on fairness, accountability, and trust.
GM, on the other hand, "is starting to turn the ship," according to supplier relations analyst Angela Johnson. The American automaker's score of 310 in the 2025 WRI is the first time it surpasses 300, a significant improvement from its 114 points scored 20 years ago, the lowest WRI score ever recorded.
Conversely, Nissan, Ford, and Stellantis (formerly FCA) declined in scores. Stellantis, which scored poorly in six key categories including transparency, buyer accessibility, responsiveness, and assistance in reducing costs and improving quality, finished last in the 2025 WRI with 141 points. Nissan fell 6 points to 249, while Ford dropped 6 points to 191.
The study, which received responses from 665 executives from 398 Tier 1 suppliers serving the six automakers with the largest U.S. manufacturing footprint, tracks supplier perceptions of working relations with their automaker customers. The responses represent an estimated 45% of the six OEMs' North America annual purchases.
The top performers stood out for fostering collaborative supplier relationships that could better navigate market volatility and regulatory changes, while those that declined struggled with cost pressures, poor communication, and weaker collaborative engagement with suppliers.
Dave Andrea, an industry analyst, suggests that automakers need to reassess their processes for new supply goods like software and electronics, as interfaces built over a century around traditional products may not fit the new supply base. Contracts also need to evolve to fit the new supply base, creating stronger relationships that enable OEMs and suppliers to work together and better navigate industry uncertainty with more equitable risk and cost sharing.
These findings underscore the importance of strong supplier relationships in the automotive industry, particularly as technology continues to evolve and disrupt traditional manufacturing processes. By prioritising communication, responsiveness, and collaboration, top-performing OEMs are positioning themselves to navigate industry challenges more effectively and maintain a competitive edge.
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