Nissan signs EV partnerships just ahead of new midterm plan

TOKYO — Ahead of Nissan's much-anticipated midterm business plan, the Japanese carmaker is teaming with a new group of partners to bolster its struggling electric vehicle strategy.

The latest ally is Mitsubishi Corp., the trading company flagship of the Mitsubishi Group, which will work with Nissan on EV charging infrastructure and autonomous driving.

The tie-up with Mitsubishi comes on the heels of Nissan's agreement with erstwhile rival Honda to explore joint purchasing and development in electric cars. Press reports have also signaled the possibility of a deal for Nissan to collaborate with troubled U.S. EV startup Fisker on production and investment.

Under the Mitsubishi Corp. collaboration announced March 18, Japan's No. 2 carmaker and Mitsubishi Corp. will work on technologies that harness renewable energies and focus on new mobility businesses for areas of Japan dealing with driver shortages and declining populations. Details of the collaboration are still to be hammered out.

The partners aim to leverage Nissan Motor Co.'s expertise in EVs and autonomous driving and build on Mitsubishi Corp.'s energy management technologies.

The tie-up follows Mitsubishi Corp.'s announcement this month that it will partner with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp. on EV services. They will form a joint company called Evnion in June to offer EV charging and EV consultation services.

Nissan is a controlling stakeholder in Mitsubishi Motors, with a 34 percent share.

Nissan is ratcheting up partnership announcements ahead of its new three-year midterm plan, which will be presented March 25 by CEO Makoto Uchida ahead of the end of the company's fiscal year March 31. Collaboration with other companies is expected to be a key element.

"We will be flexible and think of other ways to work with other potential partners," Uchida said this month while announcing the tie-up with Honda on EV development and software.

"Given the market fragmentation, it is not possible to develop technologies that are required for electrification and vehicle intelligence on our own," Uchida said. "We cannot win the competition as long as we stick to conventional wisdom and the traditional approach."

Teaming up on EVs is expected to help share cost burdens and drive economies of scale.

Nissan was a pioneer in EVs when it launched the mass-market Leaf all-electric hatchback in 2010. But it has been eclipsed over the years by a host of later entrants.

Through November 2023, the latest figures available, Nissan's global EV sales shrank to 127,953 vehicles from 128,194 the year before. In the U.S., Nissan offers only two EVs, the Leaf and Ariya. Their combined sales totaled 20,616 through December.

Nissan's longtime French partner Renault has gone its own way on EVs in recent years. It has spun off its EV business into a separate company called Ampere and invited other companies to partner with it there. Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors have pledged to invest in Ampere. Chip maker Qualcomm was also expected to invest, but that hinged on a now canceled initial public offering taking place.

Renault CEO Luca de Meo has said Ampere has been in talks with Volkswagen to develop and produce a low-cost EV for the German automaker. He has also said Renault has held talks with other automakers on possibly sharing platforms for EV development.

Uchida, 57, took office in 2019 amid the tumultuous fallout from the arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn. He began charting a recovery with the current business plan, called Nissan Next.

Running through March 31, Nissan Next cut jobs and costs while downsizing global production capacity. When unveiled in May 2020, it targeted operating profit margin of 5 percent and global sales of 5.4 million vehicles at the finish line. Nissan's operating margin for this fiscal year is forecast at 4.8 percent, while its worldwide volume is expected to tally only 3.7 million.

Former COO Ashwani Gupta had been in charge of implementing Nissan Next. But he left the company last June after being removed from the board of directors in a company shakeup.

Facing shrinking sales, Uchida's urgent task is how to grow Nissan in an era of rapid change.

Uchida told Automotive News in January that the new road map will tackle low-cost competition from China, improved competitiveness in EVs, more efficient leverage of partnerships with suppliers and the need to cultivate a more nimble corporate culture.

Management had hoped to unveil the new midterm plan last fall. It was delayed because the pace of market upheaval was so rapid.

But the announcement is at hand. Executives are reportedly making last-minute adjustments to account for a recent reprimand by Japanese antitrust regulators.

Early this month, Nissan agreed to better honor supplier contracts, retrain executives and review compliance after the Japan Fair Trade Commission found that the carmaker had been for shortchanging parts makers some $20 million over several years.

Nissan said it has already refunded the full shortfalls to affected suppliers.

The commission said that happened Jan. 31. Going forward, Nissan said it will improve compliance, supervision and training to make sure contracts are honored.

Making business plans can be like hitting a moving target, given the pace change in the industry.

For instance, in 2021, Nissan issued a long-range vision called Nissan Ambition 2030. That roadmap called for investing ¥2 trillion ($13.2 billion) in electrification over the following five years, with 23 new electrified vehicles worldwide and the development of solid-state batteries by 2030. It also targeted 40 percent of its U.S. sales coming from full electrics that year.

But some of those targets could change.

"That's already old news," Uchida said. "If you look at the world, the pace is much, much faster."