Honda and Mitsubishi form a joint venture aimed at electric vehicle battery improvements

Honda Motor Co. (Honda) and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (OTCPK:MMTOF) announced plans on Thursday to establish a new 50-50 joint venture company called Altna Co. in July. The new joint venture is based on the memorandum of understanding the two automakers signed in October 2023 to begin discussions toward the creation of new businesses in light of anticipated growth in the electric vehicle market toward a decarbonized future society.

Honda (NYSE:HMC) and Mitsubishi (OTCPK:MMTOF) said they decided to establish a joint venture company and work together to address challenges toward the societal implementation of electric vehicles such as optimization of the EV usage cost, enhancement of the lifetime value of batteries, and improvement of resource circulation within Japan. In addition, the JV aims to accommodate the increasing demand for adjustment capacities through grid storage batteries toward an increase in the proportion of renewable energy in the energy mix in Japan.

The expectation is that by combining Honda (HMC) control and connected technologies for EVs and batteries and Mitsubishi’s (OTCPK:MMTOF) power-generation know-how, Altna will strive to offer new mobility services that reduce the total cost of ownership for EV users and create new power-supply operations that enable long-term utilization of EV batteries.

Shares of Honda Motor (HMC) are up 5.8% on a year-to-date basis.