Mitsubishi is already partnered with manufacturers Renault and Nissan, but now the small Japanese automaker has joined another, existing alliance, between Nissan and Honda.
Japanese daily Nikkei reports that the partnership brings together three manufacturers with comined auto sales of just over eight million vehicles a year.
Mitsubishi, which is 34-percent owned by Nissan, will work with Honda and Nissan on the standardization of in-vehicle software.
Details of the agreement have yet to be finalized. Mitsubishi declined to comment. A Nissan spokesman said only that the news was not based on anything either company had announced. Honda did not respond to a request for comment.
Caution is thus in order, but then the Nikkei media outlet is not in the habit of launching false news.
Recall as well that last March, Nissan and Honda confirmed they were considering a strategic partnership aimed at collaboration in the production of components for electric vehicles, as well as joint work on the artificial intelligence found inside software platforms.
The kind of collaboration that would take shape between Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi would also aim to help Japanese automakers cut costs and be stronger in the face of competition from Chinese automakers in the EV sector, like BYD (Build Your Dream), as well as Tesla.
In China, the world's largest automotive market, Japanese brands have been losing market share, simply because they have to contend with local manufacturers who have rapidly increased production and won over consumers with low-cost, well-equipped and technologically advanced vehicles.
The alliances sprouting up across the auto industry are of course an eloquent example of the strength in numbers concept. We can expect more of them in the near-future.