Nissan and Honda building a software-defined electric vehicle? Japanese automakers revealed a new partnership on Thursday as they look to keep pace with Tesla and other leaders in the SDV movement.
After confirming their partnership in March, Nissan and Honda are deepening their alliance. Japanese automakers have announced a new agreement to design and expand next-generation software-defined vehicles.
Nissan and Honda will work together to promote the adoption of electric vehicles with software-defined vehicles (SDVs).
Like many competitors, that software — which includes autonomous driving, connectivity, and artificial intelligence — will “determine the price of cars in the future. “Nissan and Honda see the new generation as a “source of competitiveness”.
Nissan and Honda plan to design and expand technologies to power next-generation SDV platforms. Over the next year, the two plan to complete their fundamental research.
Based on the results, “they will consider the possibility of mass production. ” Nissan and Honda will also expand battery and electric axle technologies to power new global vehicles.
In a separate press release, Mitsubishi announced its club in the new alliance. “Mitsubishi Motors has unique technologies and expertise and participates with Nissan as a partner,” said Makoto Uchida, Nissan’s chief executive officer.
Takao Kato, CEO of Mitsubishi, explained, “Collaboration with partners is present in today’s automotive industry,” as electric cars and other technologies expand rapidly.
With Japanese automakers among the most advanced in transitioning the auto industry to electric, it’s no surprise that they’re partnering.
The partnership between Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi comes as Tesla and Chinese EV makers like BYD continue to expand into key global markets, Japan, gaining market share.
BYD breaks into the probably impenetrable Japanese auto industry. While domestic automakers such as Toyota, Nissan, and Honda dominate the market, the bulk of imports traditionally come from German luxury automakers such as Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz.
Although imports fell by 7% in Japan in the first part of 2024, imports of electric cars increased by 17%. BYD led the way, with a 184% year-on-year increase in imports, according to the Automobile Importers Association of Japan.
And that’s just a deal. BTD is expanding into other key foreign markets such as Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Brazil and Mexico, which are key for Japanese exports.
Nissan and Honda are strengthening their alliance (with Mitsubishi participating), while Toyota, Japan’s largest automaker, saw its global sales fall by as much as 5% in June.
Toyota sales fell 0. 9% in the first part of 2024, driven by double-digit declines in China, Indonesia and Thailand. The Japanese automaker attributed the fallout to a “challenging market environment” and “increased value competition. “
It looks good. Take three corporations that are very bad at writing, managing, and deploying embedded software, create a co-progression entity with complex and confusing governance, and that will actually provide world-class technology. Because, as everyone knows, Bad Bad = Class World.
BYD continues to lower its prices, making it difficult for foreign automakers to compete. BYD expects the percentage of joint venture brands to fall from around 40% to 10% in China.
Japanese automakers are the only ones looking to catch up with Tesla and BYD. U. S. automakers like Ford have announced similar plans.
Ford uses a cheap electric vehicle platform with software at its core. Ford CEO Jim Farley warned that Tesla and Chinese EV makers are the “ultimate competition. “Last month, Farley said he expects many competitors to look to China for EV platforms. .
Source: Nissan, Honda
Peter Johnson covers the automotive industry’s step-by-step transformation to electric vehicles. He is an experienced investor, an enthusiast of money and electric vehicles. His enthusiasm for electric vehicles, mainly Tesla, is one of the main reasons why he pursued a career in the investment space. If he doesn’t tell you about his latest discoveries in the 10K, you can find him enjoying the outdoors or running.