(From left) Nissan chief executive Makoto Uchida, Mitsubishi Motors CEO Takao Kato, and Honda chief executive Toshihiro Mibe leave after a joint news conference in Tokyo, Japan. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Japanese automakers Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi said on Thursday (February 13, 2025) they are ending talks on business integration.

Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said the talks had changed focus from setting up a joint holding company to making Nissan into a subsidiary of Honda.

“The intent was to join forces to win in the global competition, but this was not going to realise Nissan’s potential, so I could not accept it,” he told reporters. He said that Nissan was going to aim for a turnaround without Honda instead.

Honda Chief Executive Toshihiro Mibe said in a separate news conference that Honda had suggested a stock swap to speed up decision-making.

“I am really disappointed,” Mr. Mibe told reporters. “I felt the potential was great, but I also knew actions that would bring pain were necessary to realize that.” The automakers agreed to end their agreement regarding the consideration of the structure for a collaboration, a joint statement said.

Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Corp. announced in December that they were going to hold talks to set up a joint holding company. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. had said it was considering joining that group.

From the start, the effort had analysts puzzled as to the advantages to any of the companies, as their model lineups and strengths overlap in an industry shaken by the arrival of powerful newcomers like Tesla and BYD, as well as the move to electrification.

Honda and Nissan initially said they were trying to finalize an agreement by June and set up the holding company by August.

The three automakers will continue to work together on electric vehicles and smart cars, such as autonomous driving, they said Thursday.

In recent weeks, Japanese media had various reports about the talks breaking down, citing unidentified sources. Some said Nissan balked at becoming a minor player in the partnership with Honda.

Mr. Mibe denied he knew or heard anything about the media speculation that Taiwan’s Foxconn was considering taking a stake in Nissan.

Honda is in far better financial shape and was to take the lead in the joint executive team. Honda reported Thursday that its April-December 2024 profits declined 7% to 805 billion yen ($5 billion).

Nissan reported a loss for the July-September quarter as its vehicle sales sank, prompting it to slash 9,000 jobs. At that time, Uchida took a 50% pay cut to take responsibility for the results.

In the last episode, my colleague and host of Climate Economy, Kunal Shankar, spoke about the shifts underway in India’s transport sector, as it attempts to decarbonise. One among the many places where this transition is likely to be felt most is Coimbatore. That’s because this district is home to many of the smaller firms that form part of the automobile sector’s value chain catering to Internal combustion engine vehicles.

Coimbatore is one among the leading supply chain clusters in the country for the auto sector. Its journey as a component manufacturer for automobiles started almost six decades ago led by the foundries that made castings, factories that manufactured motors, and the demand from automobile majors in Tamil Nadu. 

In a district where streets of one or two room workshops, called micro or cottage industries, contribute to the economy, are there job losses, job shifts, or new jobs as the industries prepare for the transitions in the mobility sector? Is there adequate funding available for the MSMEs? Are these units plugged into the latest developments in technology? Let us drive into the auto clusters to understand better what’s happening on the ground.

Script & Presentation : Soundariya Preetha

Video & Editing: Shibu Narayan

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the second edition of Bharat Mobility Global Expo on Friday (January 17, 2025) which is expected to witness over 100 new launches across automobiles, component products and technologies.

The Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025, scheduled from January 17-22, will bring the entire value chain of the mobility ecosystem — from automobile manufacturers to components, electronics parts, tyre and energy storage makers, and automotive software firms and material recyclers — under a single umbrella.

With a theme “Beyond Boundaries: Co-creating Future Automotive Value Chain”, aiming to foster collaboration and innovation across the automotive and mobility sector with an emphasis on sustainable and cutting-edge technological advancements, the global expo will be held across three venues — Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, Yashobhoomi at Dwarka, Delhi and India Expo Centre & Mart, Greater Noida.

Notably, India’s flagship motor show, the biennial Auto Expo — now clubbed with the Bharat Mobility Global Expo — will also return to its original place, the erstwhile Pragati Maidan (now Bharat Mandapam) after more than a decade away at India Expo Centre and Mart at Greater Noida.

The global expo, which is supported by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, is being hosted by industry associations, including Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA), Indian Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association (ICEMA), Nasscom, Indian Steel Association, Material Recycling Association of India, and CII.

It will have 5,100 international participants and is estimated to attract more than 5 lakh visitors from across the globe.

In the automotive segment at Bharat Mandapam, electric vehicles are expected to hog the limelight with the likes of passenger vehicle market leader Maruti Suzuki unveiling its first electric vehicle, SUV e VITARA and rival Hyundai Motor India Ltd set to launch the Crtea EV on the first day.

In the luxury segment, German major Mercedes-Benz will launch its electric EQS Maybach SUV, while showcasing the electric concept CLA, and G Electric SUV. Similarly, compatriot BMW will showcase the all-electric BMW i7 apart from launching its all-new BMW X3 among others.

Overall, more than 40 new product launches are expected at this main attraction of Bharat Mobility Global Expo, 2025.

At the components show, to be held from January 18-21, 2025 at Yashobhoomi, over 1,000 exhibitors from around seven countries will be participating. There are five country pavilions from Japan, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan and the UK, and exhibitors from USA, Israel and Thailand.

Over 60 new product and technology launches are expected at the components show.

The Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025 will also witness the 1st edition of Bharat Construction Equipment Expo (Bharat CE Expo) 2025 from January 19-22 at India Expo Mart, Greater Noida, where large-scale participation of CE (construction equipment) industry, including component manufacturers, suppliers, financiers, technology solution providers and others are expected.

A Tesla that may have been operating on the company’s Autopilot driving system hit and killed a motorcyclist near Seattle on Friday, April 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The U.S. government’s auto safety agency is investigating whether last year’s recall of Tesla’s Autopilot driving system did enough to make sure drivers pay attention to the road.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents posted on its website on April 26 that it has concerns about the December recall of more than 2 million vehicles, nearly all the vehicles that Tesla had sold at the time.

The agency pushed the company to do the recall after a two-year investigation into Autopilot’s driver monitoring system, which measures torque on the steering wheel from a driver’s hands.

The fix involves an online software update to increase warnings to drivers. But the agency said in documents that it has found evidence of crashes after the fix, and that Tesla added updates that weren’t part of the recall.

“This investigation will consider why these updates were not part of the recall or otherwise determined to remedy a defect that poses an unreasonable safety risk,” the agency wrote.

A message was left early on April 26 seeking comment from Tesla.

NHTSA said that Tesla reported 20 crashes that apparently happened after the recall remedy was sent out. The agency has required Tesla and other automakers to report crashes involving partially and fully automated driving systems.

NHTSA said it will evaluate the recall, including the “prominence and scope” of Autopilot’s controls to address misuse, confusion and use in environments that the system is not designed to handle.

It also said that Tesla has stated that owners can decide whether they want to opt in to parts of the recall remedy, and that it allows drivers to reverse parts of it.

Safety advocates have long expressed concern that Autopilot, which can keep a vehicle in its lane and a distance from objects in front of it, was not designed to operate on roads other than limited access highways.

The investigation comes just one week after a Tesla that may have been operating on Autopilot hit and killed a motorcyclist near Seattle, raising questions about whether a recent recall went far enough to ensure Tesla drivers using Autopilot pay attention to the road.

After the April 19 crash in a suburban area about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of the city, the driver of a 2022 Tesla Model S told a Washington State Patrol trooper that he was using Autopilot and looked at his cellphone while the Tesla was moving.

“The next thing he knew there was a bang and the vehicle lurched forward as it accelerated and collided with the motorcycle in front of him,” the trooper wrote in a probable-cause document.

The 56-year-old driver was arrested for investigation of vehicular homicide “based on the admitted inattention to driving, while on Autopilot mode, and the distraction of the cell phone while moving forward, putting trust in the machine to drive for him,” the affidavit said.

The Tesla driver told the trooper that he was driving home from having lunch when the crash occurred at about 3:45 p.m.

The motorcyclist, Jeffrey Nissen, 28, of Stanwood, Washington, was under the car and pronounced dead at the scene, authorities reported.

Authorities said they have not yet independently verified whether Autopilot was in use at the time of the crash.

The Associated Press reported shortly after the recall that experts said it relied on technology that may not work.

Tesla, the leading manufacturer of EVs, reluctantly agreed to the recall last year after NHTSA found that the driver monitoring system was defective and required a fix.

The system sends alerts to drivers if it fails to detect torque from hands on the steering wheel, a system that experts describe as ineffective.

Government documents filed by Tesla say the online software change will increase warnings and alerts to drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel. It also may limit the areas where the most commonly used versions of Autopilot can be used, though that wasn’t entirely clear in Tesla’s documents.

NHTSA began its investigation in 2021, after receiving 11 reports that Teslas that were using the partially automated system crashed into parked emergency vehicles. Since 2016, the agency has sent investigators to at least 35 crashes in which Teslas that were suspected of operating on a partially automated driving system hit parked emergency vehicles, motorcyclists or tractor trailers that crossed in the vehicles’ paths, causing a total of 17 deaths.

But research conducted by NHTSA, the National Transportation Safety Board, and other investigators show that merely measuring torque on the steering wheel doesn’t ensure that drivers are paying sufficient attention. Experts say night-vision cameras are needed to watch drivers’ eyes to ensure they’re looking at the road.

Two-wheeler domestic wholesales were down at 12,82,054 units last month, as against 13,81,303 units in July 2022. | file photo
| Photo Credit: PTI

Domestic passenger vehicles wholesales registered a 2.94 per cent year-on-year increase in July at 3,02,521 units, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said on Thursday.

As per the latest data issued by SIAM, dispatches of passenger vehicles (PVs) from manufacturers to dealers were at 2,93,865 units in July 2022.

Two-wheeler domestic wholesales were down at 12,82,054 units last month, as against 13,81,303 units in July 2022.

Three-wheeler wholesales were higher at 56,034 units, as compared to 31,324 units in the year-ago month.

Total vehicle dispatches across categories were at 16,40,727 units, as compared to 17,06,545 units in July 2022, SIAM said.

“Though the passenger vehicle and three-wheeler segments are performing well, there has been a de-growth of two-wheelers in July 2023, compared to July 2022. Overall, we expect that the positive economic environment, good monsoons, and upcoming festive season will support continued growth in the auto industry,” SIAM President Vinod Aggarwal said.