Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp is set to join an alliance between Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co, creating an auto group with combined sales of more than 8 million vehicles, the Nikkei business daily said on Sunday.
Mitsubishi Motors, which is 34 percent owned by Nissan, would work with Honda and Nissan to finalize the details of their partnership, but the three firms intend to standardize in-vehicle software that controls cars, Nikkei said.
Mitsubishi Motors declined to comment on the report, while a Nissan spokesperson would only say the report was not based on something either of the companies had announced. Honda did not respond to a request for comment.
Photo: AFP
The push comes as Nissan has been steadily losing market share in its two largest markets, the US and China, which together accounted for half of its global sales in the year to March.
On Thursday, the company cut its annual outlook after heavy discounting in the US almost wiped out its first-quarter profit.
Nissan and Honda said in March that they were considering a strategic partnership to collaborate on producing electric vehicle components and artificial intelligence in automotive software platforms.
Mitsubishi Motors is already part of a long-standing alliance with Nissan and France’s Renault SA that the three automakers last year agreed to restructure, aiming for a more agile partnership.
Separate collaboration between Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi Motors could help Japan’s automakers cut costs and beef up to battle tough competition in electric vehicles, dominated by companies like BYD Co (比亞迪).
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
RSS