Honda and GM to Form Strategic North American Alliance

General Motors and Honda have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding toward establishing a North American automotive alliance. The proposed alliance includes a range of vehicles, ooperation in purchasing, research and development, and connected services.

“This alliance will help both companies accelerate investment in future mobility innovation by freeing up additional resources. Given our strong track record of collaboration, the companies would realize significant synergies in the development of today’s vehicle portfolio,” said Mark Reuss, President, General Motors.

Under the proposed alliance, Honda and GM would collaborate on a variety of segments in North America, sharing common vehicle platforms, for electrified and ICE systems.

“Through this new alliance with GM, we can achieve substantial cost efficiencies in North America that will enable us to invest in future mobility technology, while maintaining our own distinct and competitive product offerings. Combining the strengths of each company, and by carefully determining what we will do on our own and what we will do in collaboration, we will strive to build a win-win relationship to create new value for our customers,” said Seiji Kuraishi, Executive Vice-President, Honda Motor Co., Ltd. “In this way, Honda will continue making steady progress in solidifying our existing business by realizing strong products, strong manufacturing capability and a strong business structure,”

The alliance generates cost efficiencies from shared vehicle platforms and propulsion systems, joint purchasing, potential manufacturing efficiencies, and other collaboration. Allowing both companies to make investments in advanced and next-generation technologies.

Honda and GM plan to collaborate in joint purchasing activities. Purchasing collaboration would be focused on joint sourcing of materials, logistics, and localization strategies.

The alliance would explore combining the R&D efforts to advanced technology areas including electrical architecture, advanced driver assist systems, infotainment, connectivity and vehicle-to-everything communication (V2X).

The alliance will be governed by a joint committee of senior executives from both companies. The GM-Honda relationship began over two decades ago, includes a recent collaboration between the companies on fuel cells, batteries, and the Cruise Origin shared autonomous vehicle.