AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/01 Report--

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Nissan"), Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Honda") and Mitsubishi Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Mitsubishi") signed on August 1st, Mitsubishi will participate in the research framework based on the Memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Nissan and Honda on March 15 to begin considering the establishment of a strategic partnership for intelligent and electrified vehicles.

It seems logical for Mitsubishi to join the Nissan-Honda partnership. Mitsubishi is known to be a member of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, and Nissan owns 34% of Mitsubishi, while Honda and Nissan are Japan's second-and third-largest carmakers, respectively.

On March 15, Nissan and Honda announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding for comprehensive cooperation in the field of electric vehicles, including the production of parts related to electric vehicles, the development of automotive software and artificial intelligence, especially in the field of on-board software. Nissan and Honda hope to reduce costs through the integration of resources and enhance the competitiveness of electric vehicles in China.

It can be seen that under the pressure of industry change and transformation, Japanese car companies are accelerating to keep warm together. Mitsubishi's entry into the Nissan-Honda alliance is seen as a sign of accelerated agglomeration among Japanese car companies under the wave of electrification and intelligence. By contrast, Toyota, Japan's largest carmaker, has signed cooperation agreements with Mazda, Suzuki and Subaru. At the end of May, the leaders of Toyota, Mazda and Subaru promised to continue to invest in internal combustion engine technology and to help internal combustion engine decarbonization by combining internal combustion engine with electric technology. In addition, in the field of electrification, Mazda, Suzuki and Subaru all have cooperative relations with Toyota to jointly develop electric vehicles with the help of their technology.

As the development of new software systems requires a huge investment in research and development, the three car companies plan to work together to reduce costs and transfer operating resources to other electrified areas. However, the cooperation between the three car companies is not close, because they have only signed a cooperation agreement, and it is unclear whether the three companies can go to the end together.

Of course, huddling for warmth is not unique to Japanese car companies. For example, Audi and SAIC, Volkswagen and Xiaopeng, Stellantis Group and Zero run and so on. Behind such frequent and large-scale alliances, industry changes and competition are becoming more and more fierce, and car companies need to work together to tide over the difficulties. The same is true of the cooperation between Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi, who will continue to explore the pure electric route, but also face greater challenges at the same time.

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.

It is worth mentioning that just today, Honda and Nissan jointly held a press conference. In order to further deepen the strategic partnership framework, the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding on deepening the strategic partnership and conducted extensive discussions and reviews. It is understood that in order to promote and develop electric vehicles, the two sides reached a joint research agreement on the basic element technology in the field of next-generation software-defined vehicle (SDV) platform, and signed a memorandum of understanding on deepening strategic partnership, involving technical areas such as batteries and electric vehicle drive "E-Axle".

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