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According to media reports, Mitsubishi Motors will join the Honda-Nissan alliance. It is understood that the three companies plan to standardize the on-board software that controls cars. Nissan and Honda are expected to jointly develop basic software and discuss applications in Mitsubishi Motors, while the three companies will also consider complementing each other's vehicle lineup.

In the face of the complexity of the global automobile market and the cooling demand for electric vehicles, Honda and Nissan consider working together to overcome these challenges, seek to share R & D costs, accelerate the innovation of electric vehicle technology, and use economies of scale to reduce costs. to respond more effectively to competitive pressures in the global market. In March this year, Nissan and Honda announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to carry out comprehensive cooperation on the electric vehicle business, including joint procurement, joint development of power platforms, generalization of spare parts, and so on. Nissan and Honda hope to reduce costs through the integration of resources. enhance the competitiveness of electric vehicles in China.

As soon as the news was announced, there was a heated discussion. The electric transformation of Japanese automakers is slow, and the introduction has become an inherent perception of the industry, and now Japanese car companies have increasingly felt the pressure from the market, especially in the Chinese market. we need to face the competition with independent brands such as BYD, Geely, Changan, Chery and so on.

In the field of fuel vehicles, Nissan and Honda still have a solid position, but in the context of the accelerated global transformation of new energy, the increasingly fierce competition in electric vehicles and the slowness of Nissan and Honda in the electrification transformation, especially in the pure electric vehicle business, make it feel more and more passive.

Industry insiders believe that the cooperation can be seen as a warm-up between large carmakers under the electrification wave. Honda and Nissan are the second and third automakers in Japan, while Mitsubishi Motors ranks fifth. Judging from the disclosed information, the cooperation between the three car companies is to share the R & D and procurement costs of the electric vehicle business, so as to enlarge the electric vehicle business and promote the further optimization of Japan's automobile supply chain. However, the cooperation between the three car companies is not close, because they have only signed a cooperation agreement, after their electric vehicle business has improved to some extent, there is a possibility that it will be disbanded in the future.

Electrified transformation requires long-term huge capital investment. By looking for partners to share R & D costs on a large scale, there are also many precedents in the industry, such as Audi and SAIC, Volkswagen and Xiaopeng, Stellantis Group and Zero run and so on. And Nissan and Honda. The same is true of the cooperation between Mitsubishi, which will continue to explore the pure electric route, but also face greater challenges at the same time.

In the Chinese market, as new energy vehicles continue to squeeze the market share of fuel vehicles, the market share of Japanese cars is 22.6%, 20.0% and 17.0% respectively in the past three years, and the market share is shrinking. In 2023, Toyota, Honda and Nissan's sales in China fell 1.7%, 10.1% and 16.1%, respectively. In the first half of the year, the market share of Japanese brands in China fell to 14.9%.

In overseas markets, Japanese car companies are also feeling pressure from Chinese car companies. In 2023, China overtook Japan to become the world's largest car exporter, while in Southeast Asia, where Japanese cars have a strong advantage, Chinese car companies have put some pressure on Japanese cars with their electric car business.

A few days ago, Mitsubishi Motors reported that second-quarter operating profit fell 21.3% year-on-year to 35.519 billion yen, net profit fell 38.5% year-on-year to $193 million, and revenue fell 1.3% to $4.115 billion. Regionally, North America accounted for the largest share of Mitsubishi's global operating profit in the second quarter, at $136 million, or 58 per cent of total operating profit. By contrast, operating profit in Southeast Asia fell 1/3 to $26.8878 million. As for the impairment of performance, Mitsubishi Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Kentaro Matsuoka explained that the performance growth was stalled due to the deterioration of the business environment in Southeast Asia and the increase in sales costs.

As well-known automakers in the world, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi have deep accumulation in technology and capital, and work together for the electric vehicle business with greater determination. As to whether they will catch up from behind or not, it has a certain impact on the competition pattern of the global electric vehicle market. This topic has attracted attention.

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