Though they suspended merger talks early this year in mid-February, Japanese car
manufacturers Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi are still interested in cooperating by means of
strategic collaboration.
Honda Motor Co President Toshihiro Mibe, in a recent Q&A meeting with analysts in Japan,
reaffirmed that currently, talks are being discussed on possible new cooperative ventures.
These involve assessing areas of potential synergies like EV development and smart vehicle
technologies. Mibe stressed that even in the absence of a structural merger or capital
investment, valuable outcomes are possible from dedicated, project-focused collaborations.
“Scaling is an extremely powerful weapon in the areas of electrification and intelligence,” he
spoke.
The firms are focusing on talks to maximize efficiencies and costs savings jointly,
particularly in competitive markets such as China. Honda has been working hard to build a
robust EV presence there but is up against tough competition from indigenous producers.
Strategic cooperation with Nissan and Mitsubishi could be the source of the scale and cost
benefits that would drive competitiveness. Mibe emphasized that the use of joint technologies and economies of scale would be key to making progress in China.
“Our road to success is to develop technologies that enjoy mass- scale alliances, most importantly with Nissan and Mitsubishi,” he said.
While the whole-scale merger proposal has been put on the back burner, the memorandum of
understanding (MoU) agreed in August last year still holds good. It still directs collaborative
work across a range of projects, including next-generation software-defined vehicle (SDV)
platforms, sharing of battery supplies, eAxle systems, vehicle complementation, domestic
energy solutions, and resource recycling.