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Mitsubishi to join alliance with Honda and Nissan, Nikkei reports

TOKYO — Japan's Mitsubishi Motors is set to join an alliance between Honda Motor and Nissan Motor, creating a tie-up between automakers with combined sales of more than 8 million vehicles, the Nikkei newspaper said on Sunday. Mitsubishi Motors, which is 34% owned by Nissan, will work with Honda and Nissan to finalize the details of their strategic partnership, Nikkei said, adding the three firms intend to standardize in-vehicle software that controls cars. 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. Spokespeople for Honda did not respond to a request for comment. The push comes as Nissan, Japan's third biggest automaker, has been steadily losing market share in its two largest markets, the United States and China, which together accounted for half of its global sales in the year to March. On Thursday, the company slashed its annual outlook after heavy discounting in the U.S. almost completely wiped out its first-quarter profit. Nissan and Honda said in March 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 that the three automakers last year agreed to restructure, aiming for a downsized but more pragmatic and 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 EVs, dominated by companies like China's BYD and Tesla. In China, the world's largest auto market, Japanese brands previously were strong but are now up against domestic automakers that have rapidly increased production and won over consumers with low-priced vehicles loaded with software.

Honda's electric 0 Series: 5 things we learned at CES 2024

LAS VEGAS — After Honda announced its new all-electric 0 Series at CES this week, suffice it to say we had questions. Fortunately for us, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe was there to share the news in person. Along with other selected media, we had the opportunity to ask anything we liked about the forthcoming platform and Honda's plans for its rollout here in the United States starting in 2026. Here are five key things we learned about this new platform and the cars it will underpin.  We may see one before the Saloon arrives in 2026 While Honda has promised it will launch a production model based on the 'Saloon' concept in North America in 2026, another 0 Series vehicle may actually arrive at the same time — or even sooner. What form that may take is anybody's guess, as Mibe remained shy about the details. For now, treat 2026 as the hard deadline and rule nothing out. It will expand to new segments At launch, 0 Series will be a "mid-large" platform, which we can take to mean midsize for practical purposes. This would support cars of equivalent size to Honda's existing Accord and Passport along with the Odyssey minivan (take a close look at that Space Hub concept below). Honda plans to offer 0 Series models with different footprints later. A small-car platform suitable for subcompact, midcompact and compact offerings (think Honda City, HR-V, Civic, CR-V, etc.) will follow later, as will an even larger platform, which we would expect to be utilized for a Pilot equivalent. Though the existing ICE-powered Pilot and its other sibling, the Ridgeline are midsizers riding on the same platform as the aforementioned Passport, these are as big as Honda's trucks and crossovers get. If the mid-large platform could accommodate such offerings, it stands to reason that a larger one wouldn't be necessary.  It has not damaged Honda's relationship with GM Mibe dismissed any perceived rift between Honda and General Motors resulting from the dissolution of their agreement to build a line of small cars on GM's Ultium EV platform. The companies parted ways over a desire to approach their long-term electrification strategies differently, not over any technological limitations or constraints provided by the Ultium platform itself, Mibe said, and the two companies are still working together to develop autonomous technology utilizing elements of GM's Cruise division.

Honda reports $2.3 billion profit despite pandemic

TOKYO — Japanese automaker Honda reported Friday that its profit rose 23% in the last quarter, despite a pandemic that has slammed businesses around the world. Tokyo-based Honda said its July-September profit was 240.9 billion yen ($2.3 billion), up from 196.5 billion yen a year earlier, as the auto market recovered in some parts of the world. Honda said it carried out aggressive cost cuts that involved a “fundamental review” of its operations. The situation was also improving from earlier this year, when lockdowns and other problems related to COVID-19 caused disruptions of some production and an inventory crunch. Quarterly sales slipped to 3.65 trillion yen ($35 billion) from 3.73 trillion yen the same period a year earlier. Honda warned that uncertainty remains amid rising COVID-19 cases. But the company stressed it was managing to cling to profitability. Reflecting that upbeat mood, Honda raised its profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2021 to 390 billion yen ($3.8 billion) from an earlier projection for 165 billion yen ($1.6 billion). The latest forecast is still lower than the 455.7 billion yen profit Honda booked in the previous fiscal year. Honda sold slightly more vehicles in the quarter through September at 1.25 million vehicles, compared to 1.24 million vehicles in the same period of 2019. But it sold fewer motorcycles at nearly 4.5 million motorcycles, down from nearly 5.1 million. Kohei Takeuchi, a senior Honda manager, said much of the damage to sales likely came from the pandemic, though he hesitated to blame the entire decline on the pandemic. Executive Vice President Seiji Kuraishi told reporters Honda is bullish on shifting its lineup to ecological models to keep up with the global efforts to curb carbon emissions and global warming. Also Friday, Toyota raised its full year fiscal forecasts to a 1.4 trillion yen ($13.5 billion) profit, after reporting results that appear to show a gradual but sure recovery. Its profit fell 11% in the last quarter. Nissan reports financial results next week. Related Video: Earnings/Financials Acura Honda