Nissan and Honda might partner up to develop future EVs

When it's not busy possibly saving Fisker from bankruptcy, Nissan is also thinking about partnering up with Honda for future EVs. That's according to a new report from Nikkei Asia, citing unnamed sources at Nissan itself.

Nissan's vision is of a common EV powertrain between it and Honda, which the two companies could team up on purchasing, as well as outright designing and developing a shared EV platform. Discussions are apparently still in the early stages.

If the talks move forward, then joint battery procurement and vehicle development are topics that will be discussed next. Nissan's goal here with this possible partnership is to bring down EV development and manufacturing costs amid mounting competition from Chinese brands which benefit from in-house sourcing of components - BYD, for example, makes its own batteries, let's not forget.

EVs currently account for around 20% of sales in China, and EV sales growth made China take the world's largest vehicle exporter (by volume) crown from Japan last year. EVs in Japan make up only 2% of the market, so there is clearly a lot of catching up to do over there. A Nissan-Honda partnership may well help drive costs down for the two brands which in turn should lead to more sales.