GM, Honda announce North America car alliance

This is an agreement where Honda borrows GM(and its electrification partner LG)'s EV powertrain and platform for its North American models, which have diverged so much from Japanese domestic models that it doesn't make financial sense for Honda to keep two entirely separate lines.

Unknown to most Japanese in Japan, Japan's auto industry's competitiveness have been falling off the cliff in the past few years and Japanese are lagging way behind Americans, Germans, and Koreans in electrification and self-driving.

At least Honda realizes that it is a challenger now and is willing to adapt foreign technology to catch up, while the Toyota camp(Toyota, Mazda, Subaru, Suzuki, Daihatsu) and Nissan camp(Nissan and Mitsubishi) seem to be slow to adapt to the latest technological trend.

Unknown to most Japanese in Japan

This could be said for most industries and indeed the companies themselves, where the focus is too often on 国内。Korea, being a smaller market, has a much greater focus on exploiting overseas markets.

@Mickelicious

Korea, being a smaller market, has a much greater focus on exploiting overseas markets.

Not at all, Korean domestic market looks very much like the US, dominated by tons of German luxury vehicles(20% market share) and gas guzzling SUVs. Hence Hyundai-Kia does not need to maintain two separate product line-ups for both Korea and the US unlike Japanese automakers.

This isn't the case with Japanese automakers for whom there is a massive product divergence between Japanese and US markets. Since Honda can no longer afford to maintain two separate product lineup for Japan/Asia and the US, Honda is trying to save on development and product building cost by tapping into GM's technology and parts bin.

Korea, being a smaller market, has a much greater focus on exploiting overseas markets.

I fear, the koreans Hyundai-Kia will increase market share at the expense of the Japanese just like samsung in electronics. Quality of Korean cars has improved in leaps and bounds and is now on par with the japanese brands, the styling as well is top notch.

The lack of competition in the japanese domestic car market is not helping the japanese car manufacturers competitiveness internationally, the same hapoened in electronics and will happen in automobiles.

IMO, GM would have done better to ally with Toyota. Toyota makes better cars than Honda.

@1glenn

Toyota makes better cars than Honda.

Irrelevant since GM is the technology supplier and Honda is the technology buyer in this transaction.

Toyota hasn't sought an outside technology supplier.

IMO, GM would have done better to ally with Toyota. Toyota makes better cars than Honda.

Years ago when GM was No.1 they both managed a plant together (New United Motor Manufacturing NUMMi) in Fremont California from 1984-2010 assembling subcompact cars and trucks, GM pulled out of the partnership when it filed for benkruptcy. T

he plant was later bought by Tesla to build the Model S

The best-selling car in California in the first quarter of 2020 was the Tesla Model 3. GM and Honda have a lot of catching up to do.

@Hillclimber

You're simply making things up to look like Honda is some backwater company crying out for help.

It is.

GM is crying out for help with its passenger cars

What passenger car? GM is pretty much an all SUV company now in North America.

replacing the side mirrors on production vehicles on sale now

It's not a revolutionary tech.

current car sales figures in the US put them well behind Toyota, Honda and Nissan in outright sales each quarter.

Huh?

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a33864365/sales-august-recover-from-spring-downturn/

Toyota saw sales fall 22.7 percent this past month but saw large discrepancies between its Toyota and Lexus divisions. For the former, sales fell 24.6 percent,

Honda posted an overall sales decline of 21.9 percent, and similarly to Toyota, its Honda division saw sales fall 23 percent

Sales at Hyundai, which dropped 8.4 percent in August, were cushioned by the increasing popularity of the Palisade and Kona.

Everytime, there is a Korean mention anywhere at anytime at any site. There is always a Japanese nationalist lurking around.

Why do Japanese people obsess with what Korean people do so much?

General Motors and Honda announced Thursday they were establishing a strategic alliance in North America to share vehicle platforms and development costs.

Even China is having its own automotive depression, so does the global auto market in the developed world. Tesla might come around as the biggest winner in the end.

GM is crying out for help with its passenger cars. Honda needs help with its truck model (the Ridgeline not even in the top 10 for sales).

I detest American pick up trucks with a passion, absolutely hate everything about them and would never own one, but if Honda offered a nice manual transmission option in the Ridgeline I would buy one in a New York nanosecond.

This will be a BIG help to GM. Honda may benefit in some truck related ways but oh boy, when it comes to good car-making technology. The little stuff which make Hondas last and last, that will be a very beneficial gift for GM.

Hope they manage to improve GM and manage to keep Honda's high quality and know-how at a high level.

Really hope Honda does not start GM-ifying its lineup. If it does, it'll regret it.

*Speaking about tech, why is it that both Lexus and now Honda have side cameras and interior monitors replacing the side mirrors on production vehicles on sale now, while the South Koreans twiddle their thumbs? Watch as Hyundai follows them in this area.*

Lol, is it some novel tech ?

*Really? Maybe the Koreans should follow Japan's lead then because current car sales figures in the US put them well behind Toyota, Honda and Nissan in outright sales each quarter. *Toyota sells well over double what Hyundai sells each month in the US

The same was said of samsung in electronics, we all know what the results are.

Go check out Hyundai Luxury Genesis brand G80, GV80, Hyundai Palisade and then come

lets talk.