The merger would create a group with total annual sales of more than eight million vehicles, wrote the business newspaper “Nikkei” on Sunday. Among other things, the joint development of software is planned.
The details of the agreement are still being negotiated. Mitsubishi declined to comment on the matter. The other two car manufacturers could not initially be reached for comment.
Nissan, Japan’s third-largest vehicle maker, is suffering from falling demand in its two most important markets USA and China. As a result, the company’s operating profit was almost wiped out in the past quarter. The company also scaled down its full-year targets.
In March, Nissan and Honda said they were considering forming a strategic partnership to develop electric vehicles. This is intended to reduce costs in order to compete against Tesla from the USA or BYD from China to be able to compete better.