Recently, Nikkei was the first to report that Mitsubishi Motors will join the electric vehicle alliance previously formed by Honda and Nissan, thus reaching a cooperation between the three major manufacturers.
Mitsubishi is said to have signed confidentiality agreements with Honda and Nissan and is initiating negotiations. Considering that Toyota has previously joined hands with Mazda, Suzuki, Subaru, plus Toyota's Hino and Daihatsu, "Nikkei", "Yomiuri Shimbun", "Asahi Shimbun" and many other Japanese media pointed out that Japan's domestic car companies will form a situation where two camps will fight each other. 01 Mitsubishi goes to Nissan and Honda
Mitsubishi's joining the Nissan and Honda partnership seems to be a natural thing to do. Mitsubishi is known to be part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, and Nissan holds a 34% stake in Mitsubishi, while Honda and Nissan are Japan's second and third largest automakers, respectively.
On March 15 this year, Nissan and Honda announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the field of electric vehicles, including the production of electric vehicle-related components, the development of automotive software and artificial intelligence, and the realization of generalization in the field of in-vehicle software. Nissan and Honda hope to reduce costs through resource integration and improve the competitiveness of their products for electric vehicles in China.
Today, Mitsubishi's entry is considered to be under the wave of electrification and intelligence, and Japan car companies are accelerating their huddles. Since the development of new software systems requires a huge amount of R&D investment, the three automakers plan to reduce costs through cooperation and shift management resources to other areas of electrification.
In terms of sales scale, Honda's global sales in fiscal 2023 (April 2023-March 2024) will be 4.11 million units, Nissan will be 3.44 million units, and if Mitsubishi's 810,000 units are added, the sales scale of this camp will exceed 8 million units.
On the other hand, Toyota, Japan's largest automaker, has been forming alliances in Japan and has signed cooperation agreements with Mazda, Suzuki, and Subaru. At the end of May this year, the heads of Toyota, Mazda and Subaru made a rare joint appearance, pledging to continue to invest in internal combustion engine technology and help decarbonize the internal combustion engine by combining it with electrification technology and making it compatible with green alternative fuels such as biofuels and synthetic fuels. In addition, in the field of electrification, Mazda, Suzuki, and Subaru have partnered with Toyota Motor Corporation to jointly develop electric vehicles using their technologies.
As for the scale, in fiscal year 2023, Toyota Motor (including Hino and Daihatsu) will sell about 11.09 million units globally, plus Suzuki Motor 3.16 million units, Mazda 1.24 million units, and Subaru 920,000 units, and the sales scale of this camp will exceed 16 million units.
Regarding the changes in the pattern brought about by Mitsubishi's entry, the headline of "Nikkei Shimbun" is "Mitsubishi Motors, Honda and Nissan Merge, Begin to Negotiate the Generalization of In-Vehicle Software, and Become Two Major Camps with Toyota"; The headline of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper was "Mitsubishi Motors moves toward the Honda-Nissan Alliance, and domestic cars are reorganized into two camps." It can be seen that under the pressure of industry change and transformation, Japan car companies are accelerating the huddle for warmth.
02 The industry accelerates group heating
Mitsubishi's huddle with Nissan and Honda also highlights the huge pressure on Japan car companies. The Nikkei newspaper pointed out that the reason why Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi joined forces stems from the sense of crisis brought about by the great transformation of the automotive industry. Globally, the automotive industry is transforming from fuel vehicles to electric vehicles, and in this context, emerging forces are rising, and Japan car companies lag behind competitors such as Tesla and BYD, and have limited ability to fight alone, so they have to adjust their expansion routes and reshuffle and reorganize in Japan.
In addition, from the perspective of operating performance, just a few days ago, Nissan Motor announced its April-June quarterly financial results, and the sharp discount in the United States market almost wiped out Nissan's profit in the quarter, coupled with the downward revision of annual performance expectations, causing Nissan's stock price to plummet.
At the same time, Japan car companies are also in a bitter battle in China, the world's largest new car market. To that end, Nissan announced in June that it would officially close its passenger car plant in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, which has an annual production capacity of about 130,000 vehicles, accounting for about 10% of Nissan's total production in China. Then, on July 26, Honda China announced that it would optimize its production capacity, confirming that it would close two of its seven vehicle production lines in China, reducing Honda's total vehicle production capacity in China from 1.49 million units to 1.2 million units. However, Honda is also emphasizing further acceleration of electrification in China, with Dongfeng Honda's new electrified plant, which is under construction, to start operations in September, and Guangqi Honda's new energy plant to start operations in November.
Of course, huddling for warmth is not unique to Japan car companies. For example, Changan Automobile has joined hands with Geely, Volkswagen Group has married Xpeng Motors, Stellantis has joined hands with Leapmotor, and Mercedes-Benz and BMW have jointly built a charging network in China. Behind such frequent and large-scale alliances is the increasingly fierce industry change and competition, and car companies need to join forces to tide over the difficulties together.
Text: Zhang Dongmei Editor/Layout: Li Peiyang
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