- Honda and Nissan have signed an agreement to conduct a feasibility study for a partnership.
- The collaboration will center around sourcing components for electric vehicles and automotive software.
- It’s unclear how long this study will take, but the two companies admitted they “cannot afford to be complacent” in an EV market in which they are lagging.
Honda and Nissan this morning announced that they are exploring a partnership. The two companies said they have signed a memorandum of understanding to execute a feasibility study for a strategic partnership that will focus on “vehicle electrification and intelligence,” which will include automotive software platforms.
Two Titans Aim to Team Up
Few other details were revealed, but Honda and Nissan said that the agreement has come about because they believe it is “necessary to combine their strengths.” According to Automotive News, the two automakers will look into sharing and jointly producing electric motors, battery technologies, and other crucial EV parts.
“Can we survive? That’s the question,” AN quoted Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe as asking. The two companies are reportedly concerned about the rise of Tesla and emergence of Chinese companies in the EV space, such as BYD. Nissan currently sells two EVs in the United States, the Ariya crossover and the aging Leaf. Honda is just readying its first dedicated EV, the Prologue, itself a product of a partnership with General Motors, with plans to launch a sedan by 2026.
“By 2030 we have to be a top runner, in a position to fight against the top players,” Mibe said to AN. Initially, there are no plans for directly sharing vehicle architectures or rebadging models, with the focus instead on improving the scale and the cost of EV component production.
“We cannot afford to be complacent,” Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida told AN. An unnamed top-level employee also reportedly stated, “We need to accelerate electrification and acceleration means investment and that requires achieving scale. For us, what is most important is making the supplier base more efficient.”
Caleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan.