Japanese automakers Honda (HMC) and Nissan (NSANY) on Aug. 1 announced that they are adding Mitsubishi to their already strong alliance, which will jointly work on electric vehicles and software.
In a statement, Mitsubishi Motors CEO Takao Kato said that the trio’s collaborative efforts will help each respective company gain an edge in an ever-evolving automotive landscape.
“Nissan and Honda’s discussions on a possible partnership have progressed, and we have decided to participate in this framework,” Kato said.
“Collaboration with partners is essential in today’s automotive industry, which is undergoing rapid changes due to technological innovations such as electrification and intelligence. We believe that we can discover new possibilities in a variety of fields through collaboration among the three companies.”
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A partnership like Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Honda’s is needed at a time when the rise of cheap, technologically advanced EVs from Chinese companies like BYD (BYDDY) is gaining a foothold in markets the Japanese trio once dominated.
By joining forces, the trio can accelerate the development of EVs without having to invest so much of its own money in research. Already, Nissan and Honda have agreed to what they call “mutual vehicle complementation,” which allows them to share models and complete each other’s lineups of EVs and gas-powered cars.
While all of this sounds like a great development for Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi, a key figurehead is not impressed and suggests that a more nefarious plot is taking place.
Former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn with a Nissan Leaf in 2011.
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/Getty Images
A former CEO weighs in
One of the world’s most controversial automotive executives, the embattled former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, alleged that something more fishy is happening with the partnership between Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi, according to his interview with Automotive News,.
Ghosn alleges that Honda is plotting a “disguised takeover” of Nissan and Mitsubishi. Of the three Japanese automakers, he believes Honda is the biggest, essentially in the “driver’s seat” to take control and call the shots.
“I can’t imagine for one moment how it’s going to work between Honda and Nissan unless it’s a takeover, unless it’s a disguised takeover by Honda of Nissan and Mitsubishi with Honda in the driver’s seat,” Ghosn said.
“It’s going to be a takeover, a disguised takeover.”
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Ghosn told the outlet that a partnership with Honda would have never happened during his tenure at Nissan, noting that “signing an alliance is the easy part” and “making the alliance work is a completely different story.”
“Saying they will work together is just 5 percent of the challenge. The other 95 percent of the areas are where you really need to sit down, have a strong position and have a repartition of the work,” Ghosn said.
“You need to work on synergies. You need to make sure that you’re not fixated about your identity or your national belonging. You need to really look at your bottom line, at increasing your revenues, cutting your costs.”
The new agreement’s details have yet to be fully developed. However, Nissan and Honda report that their engineers are already working together to develop fundamental components of software-driven cars.
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Ghosn, the Fugitive
Ghosn’s time with Nissan began in 1999 when the Nissan-Renault alliance was born. Then, the French automaker took 43.4 percent in the Japanese company, 5% of which it sold back to Nissan in 2023.
After being appointed as CEO of Nissan in 2001, Ghosn led Nissan for nearly two decades, implementing some of the changes that gave him the nickname “Le Cost Killer” during his time at Renault.
Ghosn shook up the corporate structure and the way the Japanese company did business. Still, notable cars such as the all-electric Nissan Leaf and the Nissan GT-R supercar were products introduced during his tenure.
However, all things had to come to an end. Ghosn’s downfall came when Japanese police arrested him in November 2018 on charges of misusing Nissan company funds and deliberately under-reporting his salary for five years.
Today, he is most known for escaping house arrest in Japan. In the dead of night in December 2019, Ghosn fled to his ancestral home, Lebanon, a country that doesn’t extradite its citizens.
He escaped by hiding in an oversized box meant for transporting musical equipment, a 30-minute experience he told the BBC in 2021 was “the longest wait I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
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