TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors is about to hitch an alliance between Honda Motor and Nissan Motor, creating an auto group with mixed gross sales of greater than 8 million autos, the Nikkei enterprise every day mentioned on Sunday.
Mitsubishi Motors, which is 34% owned by Nissan, will work with Honda and Nissan to finalise the small print of their partnership, however the three corporations intend to standardise in-vehicle software program that controls vehicles, Nikkei mentioned.
Mitsubishi Motors declined to touch upon the report, whereas officers at Nissan and Honda weren’t instantly accessible for remark.
The push comes as Nissan, Japan’s third greatest automaker, has been steadily dropping market share in its two largest markets, the US and China, which collectively accounted for half of its international gross sales within the yr to March.
On Thursday, the corporate slashed its annual outlook after heavy discounting within the U.S. nearly utterly worn out its first-quarter revenue.
Collaboration might assist Japan’s automakers lower prices and beef as much as battle robust competitors in electrical autos, dominated by firms like China’s BYD and Tesla.
In China, the world’s largest auto market, Japanese manufacturers beforehand have been sturdy however at the moment are up towards home automakers which have quickly elevated manufacturing and gained over customers with low-priced autos loaded with software program.
Nissan and Honda mentioned in March they have been contemplating a strategic partnership on producing EV elements as they search to realize a larger foothold within the international marketplace for battery-powered vehicles, which is predicted to develop over the approaching years.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Enhancing by Sonali Paul)
