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The Nissan concern has published an official statement about plans for a partnership with Honda and Mitsubishi, which was reported by insiders a few days ago. So far, it is only a memorandum of understanding, but the vector of joint development of the three manufacturers has already been marked.
Nissan called the document signed by the parties a step towards further discussion of the possibilities of joint activities. The three companies plan to join forces to achieve carbon neutrality and reduce the number of accidents. For this, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi plan, for example, to jointly develop new software products and electrification technologies.
It is expected that joint activities in this field will increase the efficiency of each of the companies, including due to more prompt response to changes in the global market. The head of Mitsubishi Takao Kato noted that the auto industry is currently undergoing very rapid changes on the background of technological innovation, and the head of Honda Toshihiro Mibe said that the industry is going through such a period of transformation that happens once in a century.
What form trilateral cooperation will take is still unclear in detail. However, among other things, Nissan specified that a separate agreement was signed with Honda, which provides for joint fundamental research in the field of software-defined transport of a new generation. This agreement was a development of the memorandum executed by the two companies back in March.
As far as we can judge from the text of Nissan's statement, the memorandum does not provide for a physical merger of the three companies, which was previously predicted by sources. So far, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi are only considering the prospects of joint development of new technologies.
