Nissan & Honda confirm EV partnership talks

Nissan and Honda may be close to a technology and platform sharing deal, with both brands confirming the start of a feasibility study this week.

Beginning with a memorandum of understanding, the talks will focus on electrification and “intelligence”, with the latter likely to take the form of advanced safety systems.

“It is important to prepare for the increasing pace of transformation in mobility in the mid-to-long-term, and it is significant that we have reached this agreement based on a mutual understanding that Honda and Nissan face common challenges,”  said Nissan president and CEO, Makoto Uchida.

His counterpart at Honda, Toshihiro Mibe, said the automotive industry is undergoing a “once-in-a-century transformation” and that both companies aim to cooperate on technologies and knowledge they hope will “enable us to become industry leaders by creating new value for the automotive industry”.

Where are Nissan and Honda on EVs right now?

The announcement comes at crunch time for both brands, their paths to this point having been marred with interruptions, apparent indecision and an unwillingness to make the same big bets their European, American and Chinese counterparts have taken on.

Nissan and Honda both have a history of pioneering in electrification, and both have EVs available in markets around the world right now – but, like compatriot brands Toyota and Mitsubishi, neither has shown any readiness to take on the sort of large-scale investment and production programs that have pushed Korean rivals Hyundai and Kia to the forefront of volume-selling electric cars.

Today’s announcement also follows news in late 2023 that Honda and GM had killed the EV partnership that resulted in the Honda Prologue electric SUV that has only just recently launched in the US.

Apart from the North America-exclusive Prologue, Honda’s only electric passenger vehicle available right now is the HR-V-based e:Ny1 in Europe, although it also offers hybrid versions of the HR-V, ZR-V, CR-V and Civic. A new hybrid-powered Prelude coupe was unveiled in November. It had previously launched the compact Honda E hatch in Europe, but killed it in January 2024 after just four years on the market.

Around the same time, Honda revealed its “0 Series” EV plans, previewed by an Odyssey-like ‘Saloon’ and a people-mover dubbed Space-Hub. Only the former has been confirmed for any sort of production future, targeting a 2026 global launch.

Then there's the new Afeela EV brand, launched together with Sony.

Whether Honda will share its 0 Series platform and technology with Nissan is unclear, but will likely form part of the partnership discussions.

Honda has previously announced plans to sell around 2 million EVs annually by 2030, but 2023 saw the Japanese brand sell fewer than 15,000 – almost all of them in China.

Nissan’s current electric passenger car range includes the ageing Leaf hatch and the fresher Ariya.  The Ariya was unveiled in 2020, but pandemic-related issues saw its overseas launch delayed until 2022, while the brand’s Australian arm has still not confirmed timing for a local launch.

As part of the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance, Nissan confirmed a 15% investment in the group’s Ampere platform in February 2023 (Mitsubishi confirmed its involvement in October), with plans to launch new-generation electric replacements for the Qashqai, Juke and Leaf.

As with Honda’s 0 Series program, it remains to be seen if this potential new partnership will see Honda gain access to the Ampere platform or if it will be limited to Nissan’s own EV systems.

Shared production capacity will likely also form a part of the strategy, but again, neither brand has offered any clear view on what their talks will cover.