Japan rivals Nissan and Honda will share EV components and AI research as they play catch up
Japanese automakers Nissan and Honda say they plan to share components for electric vehicles like batteries and jointly research software for autonomous driving
TOKYO — Japanese automakers Nissan and Honda say they plan to share components for electric vehicles like batteries and jointly research software for autonomous driving.
A third Japanese manufacturer, Mitsubishi Motors Corp., has joined the Nissan-Honda partnership, sharing the view that speed and size are crucial in responding to dramatic changes in the auto industry centered around electrification.
A preliminary agreement between Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. was announced in March.
After 100 days of talks, executives of the companies evinced a sense of urgency. Japanese automakers dominated the era of gasoline engines in recent decades but have fallen behind formidable new players in green cars like Tesla of the U.S. and China’s BYD.
“Companies that don’t adapt to the changes cannot survive,” said Honda Chief Executive Toshihiro Mibe. “If we try to do everything on our own, we cannot catch up.”
Nissan and Honda will use the same batteries and adopt the same specifications for motors and inverters for EV axels, they said.
By coming together in what Mibe and counterpart at Nissan, Makoto Uchida, repeatedly called “making friends” to achieve economies of scale, the companies plan more strategic investments in technology and aim to cut costs by boosting volume.
Each company will continue to produce and offer its own model offerings. But they will share resources in areas like components and software development, where “making friends” will be a plus, Mibe and Uchida told reporters.
They declined to say whether the friendship will extend to a mutual
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