While the brands chinas are expanding relentlessly throughout the world, and traditional companies are thinking about how they can confront them in order not to lose their hegemony in the global automobile industry.
In Europe, the possibility of forming the Airbus of automobiles is being considered, and something similar is happening in Japan; a few months ago, Honda and Nissan They announced that they would join forces and now Mitsubishi Motors could also be part of this alliance.
Historical rivals condemned to understand each other to face China
Chinese brands have become a huge threat to traditional manufacturers and have done so in record time, leaving traditional brands with little room to react. While some governments are trying to curb China with tariffs, manufacturers are drawing up their own plans to achieve the same goal.
In Europe, there has been talk for months of the possibility of major rival brands joining together to face the Chinese invasion, as Airbus did in its day. Renault CEO Luca de Meo is exploring such possible alliances between competitors to form “an Airbus for cars.”
And it seems that European brands are not the only ones considering this alternative because, according to the media, NikkeiMitsubishi could join the Honda-Nissan alliance we talked about last March, when the agreement was made official. At the time, we said that, despite Honda and Nissan being historical rivals, they are doomed to join forces to compete with Chinese brands, partly because they do not believe in the electric car.
Well, Nikkei points out that this alliance could be expanded with a third Japanese manufacturer that is also a historical rival of Honda and Nissan: Mitsubishi Motors. At the moment, there is no official statement on this matter, but the objective of this alliance would be to improve the competitiveness of the three companies in order to compete in terms of scale and supply chain in the face of increasingly powerful Chinese brands.
Nikkei reports that Mitsubishi Motors has signed a confidentiality agreement with Honda and Nissan, Japan’s second- and third-largest automakers respectively, and that talks to form such a partnership have already begun.
If the global sales of the three companies are added together, This group would exceed 8.35 million units worldwide, with 4.1 million from Honda, 3.44 million from Nissan and 810,000 units from Mitsubishi.
For its part, Japan’s largest carmaker, Toyota, has already formed alliances with Daihatsu, Suzuki, Subaru, Mazda and Hino Motors, in this case raising combined sales volume to 16 million units.
The objective of the alliance between Mitsubishi, which is 34.01% owned by Nissan, Nissan itself and Honda, would be standardize software which controls the vehicle so that the models of the three companies share this technology and can save costs, providing both development and supply. This software would also serve to make the vehicles of the three brands more competitive.
Another possible objective of this agreement would be to complement the ranges of the three companiesHonda does not make plug-in hybrids in Japan, so Mitsubishi, which does, could help Honda in this regard, for example by supplying parts.
That the three brands are quite green in terms of electric mobility This is also an important issue when it comes to launching this alliance. Chinese brands are very strong in the field of electric cars and Honda, Mitsubishi and Nissan are aware that they must get their act together to remain strong and face the era of electrification.
Source: www.motorpasion.com
