‘Nissan wants to partner with Honda for affordable EVs’

In Japan they still don’t care much about the electric car. A small 2.2 percent of new cars in the country would be electric in 2023. Here in the Netherlands the share was 30.8 percent. Perhaps the lower price will lead to more EV sales in Japan. And to make electric cars cheaper, Nissan wants to enter into a partnership with Honda.

The concept of Nissan is based on Nikkei to build an electric engine and a common platform for electric vehicles with Honda. It’s no surprise that the two car brands are helping each other reduce production costs. The unique thing is that Nissan is already in a group with Renault and Mitsubishi. Will Renault also work indirectly with Honda? Or are the two brands still islands?

Nissan previously rejected a partnership with Honda

What makes the potential partnership between Honda and Nissan even more special is a quote from a few years ago. In 2020, the Japanese government proposed that Honda and Nissan merge. Nissan’s chief executive responded strongly Financial Times: ‘Nissan-Honda collaboration would make sense to people who don’t understand the car industry.’

At this time, a possible partnership is still in the exploratory stage. That’s definitely better than the denial phase. Honda acknowledges that there are discussions, but does not want to comment further to the media. Earlier, the EV deal with General Motors failed for Honda. The two met in the construction of fuel tanks for hydrogen vehicles.