Honda Motor Co plans to set up a joint venture with Hitachi Automotive Systems Ltd to develop, produce and sell motors for electric vehicles, citing the expected increase in demand for electric cars with tougher environmental standards.
The joint venture has plans to manufacture in Japan, the US and China, and it is considering using Hitachi’s existing plants in those nations, Hitachi Automotive chief executive Hideaki Seki said at a briefing in Tokyo yesterday.
The new company is also to sell to automakers other than Honda if there is demand, he said.
RISING COSTS
Automakers are forging partnerships amid pressure from regulators and rising costs for developing cleaner vehicles and self-driving cars.
Toyota Motor Corp and Suzuki Motor Corp on Monday signed an agreement to undertake a “concrete examination” of a business partnership. Honda last month said it would jointly manufacture fuel-cell systems with General Motors Co.
Establishing a joint venture with Hitachi can save costs as motor production requires huge capital investment, Honda chief executive Takahiro Hachigo said at the briefing.
It would also combine the advantages of both companies to advance the competitiveness of the motors from the joint venture, he said.
HYBRIDS
Tokyo-based Hitachi Automotive, established in 2009, is a subsidiary of the conglomerate Hitachi Ltd. The company first started selling motors for electric vehicles in 1999 and supplies them to Nissan Motor Co, Toyota and General Motors.
The motors from the Honda-Hitachi venture are to be used for hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, Hachigo said.
Even with the new company, Honda would continue to make its own motors and keep production lines in Japan, he said.
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