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Honda-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance completes Japan car industry consolidation

Makoto Uchida (left), president and CEO of Nissan, and Toshihiro Mibe, director, president and representative executive officer of Honda, at a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday. (Getty)   Japan’s carmakers are putting the finishing touches on a combine-and-compete strategy for an automotive age defined by batteries and software, with three manufacturers joining forces to complement a separate Toyota Motor Corp.-led coalition. Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. agreed this week to build upon a preliminary deal first reached in March, offering more details of how they plan to work together and also adding Mitsubishi Motors Corp. to the mix. While the companies havenÂ’t yet discussed a capital alliance, forming one is a possibility, Honda Chief Executive Officer Toshihiro Mibe said. The partnership will span joint work on software development, batteries and other electric-vehicle components, as well as EV charging and energy services, the three companies said. Their cozying up to one another follows Toyota acquiring stakes in Subaru Corp., Suzuki Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp., and helping them navigate a fraught era for legacy car companies. Whereas Toyota has tied up with its domestic peers from a position of strength — itÂ’s been the worldÂ’s best-selling automaker for four years running — Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi each are much smaller players on the global stage. Their coming together is seen as a move by JapanÂ’s government to fortify its auto industry in the wake of China having emerged as the worldÂ’s new No. 1 car exporter. “This is coordinated by the government to build a competitive automaking industry,” said James Hong, analyst at Macquarie Securities Korea Ltd., adding that most automakers in Japan are too small to be able to invest in EVs individually. “It feels like a politically driven alliance.” While the US has had the Big Three — General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler, now owned by Stellantis NV — and Germany similarly has a trio in Volkswagen Group, BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz, Japan has a much bigger crop of carmakers manufacturing vehicles across the globe. Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi combined sold about 4 million vehicles globally in the first six months of the year, well shy of the 5.2 million that Toyota sold on its own. While the three touted the potential for generating synergies from working together, executives also acknowledged theyÂ’ll have to overcome contrasts with their compatriots.

Honda: 2/3rds of our vehicles will be plug-in or hydrogen by 2030

Honda has a new and expanded vision for its plug-in electric vehicles, including more plug-in lawn mowers and construction machines. While things like the Miimo are cool, we'll admit that we're more into the heavy emphasis that Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo just put on pure electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles. In fact, Hachigo is so confident in these electric options that he said that Honda expects fully two-thirds of its vehicles will fit into one of those three categories by 2030. "We will make a plug-in hybrid type available for our major models" - Takahiro Hachigo Speaking at an annual speech in Japan, Hachigo talked about an electric version of the popular Honda Cub motorcycle, the EV-CUB. This electric two-wheeler could come to Japan in about two year and then to various countries in Southeast Asia. As for four-wheelers, the way that Hachigo sees electrification working is to first emphasize plug-in hybrids as the core of the brand's electrification efforts. Specifically, he said that, "we will make a plug-in hybrid type available for our major models and increase the number of models sequentially." The end result, he said, is that, "we will strive to make two-thirds of our overall unit sales from plug-in hybrid/hybrid vehicles and zero-emissions vehicles such as, FCVs and battery EVs by around 2030." The company's next hydrogen vehicle is the Clarity, which goes on sale in Japan in March. It's next-gen EV and PHEV should arrive in or around 2018. You can watch the speech in the video above. The electrification roadmap starts at around minute 32. The only other traditional automaker that is willing to put a big number on its upcoming electric vehicle sales is Audi, which said at the LA Auto Show last year that between 20 and 25 percent of its new vehicles sold will have a plug by 2025. If Audi wants to catch Honda's aggressive claims, it'll need to work hard in the five years after 2025. Related Video:

Detroit automakers observing 8:46 of silence to mark Juneteenth

GM Executive Vice President of Global Manufacturing Gerald Johnson, right, talks with employees at the Fairfax Assembly & Stamping Plant in Kansas City, Kansas. (file photo - GM)     All three Detroit automakers are observing Juneteenth, a day commemorating the end of slavery, on Friday by observing 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence, among other companywide efforts to advance the causes of social and racial justice and equality. Juneteenth marks the date, June 19, in 1865 when Union soldiers, led by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, arrived at Galveston, Texas, and announced the Civil War had ended and enslaved African Americans were to be freed. President Abraham Lincoln had officially ended slavery more than two years prior via the Emancipation Proclamation, but Union forces didn't reach Texas until that time, so there was virtually no enforcement. The 8:46 timestamp is significant because it was the length of time that a police officer in Minneapolis knelt on the neck of George Floyd during an arrest, ultimately killing him and sparking waves of protests across the U.S. and overseas. Autoblog asked automakers about their plans to mark Juneteenth, what they were doing to advance the cause of social justice for Black people, and how many African Americans they employ in both blue- and white-collar jobs. We heard back from GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler and Honda but not from Nissan and Toyota. General Motors GM’s U.S. workforce is 17.2% Black and 69.2% white, according to its most recent corporate Diversity and Inclusion Report. GM's total global employment is 173,000, and it says women and minorities represent 40% of its team of corporate officers. For reference, the Census Bureau says African Americans make up 13.4% of the U.S. population of roughly 328 million people. White people constitute 76.5%. As previously reported, GM planned to pause production at its factories on each shift today and observe silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The company will also have a digital countdown clock atop the GM's headquarters in Detroit for the moment of silence. Additionally, Chairman and CEO Mary Barra has said she will lead a new Inclusion Advisory Board made up of people from within and outside GM to suggest areas for change and hold the company to its commitments to fight injustice and racial inequality.