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Automakers have long counted on parts-sharing to keep costs down—not just across individual lineups, but even across brands and market segments. Volkswagen Group’s MQB platform became the poster child for modern parts-sharing architectures in the 2010s, and many other automakers have since consolidated their lineups to the bare minimum of fundamental platforms to make manufacturing cheaper and more consistent.
But there are downsides. VW Group has long been accused of offering the same sausage in different lengths, as it were, and commonality across brands tends to invite accusations of cost-cutting and even badge-engineering—sometimes fairly, in both cases, but not always.
Now, imagine that sort of commonality across not just multiple brands under the same corporate umbrella, but across multiple manufacturing entities. That’s what the Japanese auto industry is reportedly considering (sub. req’d), Automotive News reports.
Sure, we’ve seen cross-brand platform joint ventures before. BMW and Toyota just built the Z4 and Supra as part of a joint program, and Mazda had the same arrangement with Fiat to produce the modern 124 Spider (just a reskinned MX-5). What the Japanese auto industry is proposing would be something on a much larger scale.
Says who? Toyota CEO Koji Sato, who is also the current chairman of JAMA, the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association. The group represents Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, and Suzuki.
“We have a strong sense of crisis that the Japanese auto industry is in a massive period of transition,” Sato said. “Now is exactly the time to further develop and evolve with the challenges and reform initiatives that the auto industry as a whole must face.”
Sato, joined by Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa, told the outlet that standardization of parts will free Japanese manufacturers to concentrate their development resources on developing emerging technologies that customers actually want, such as new software interfaces, advanced driver-assistance tech, and EVs that charge more quickly.
In addition to being the JAMA chairman and Toyota CEO, Sato is also Toyota’s “Chief Industry Officer,” putting him in charge of lobbying for policy changes that will benefit the automotive sector.
“We are really talking about what we can do together, because we do see that other industries in other countries or other parts of the world are better organized than us,” Espinosa told the outlet. “We will see a lot more collaboration among Japanese OEMs.”
What will that collaboration look like? In the short term, the goal is to standardize the parts customers won’t see, much the same way automakers do within their current lineups. Think wiring harnesses and fluid hoses, rather than sheet metal or frame components. Sato didn’t suggest that commonalities would extend to platforms or body castings; in fact, such processes weren’t even brought up.
We’ve seen hybridized platforms before, though usually in more formal joint ventures and mergers. Chrysler’s LX platform was engineered to play nice with components from Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz and Sprinter lines, for example, despite being derived from Chrysler’s own LH architecture.
There are potential upsides and downsides to an arrangement like this. As we’ve seen at Ford and GM, collaboration doesn’t always mean copying. Their respective 10-speed automatic transmissions were developed jointly but engineered separately, resulting in very different outcomes for their respective customers.
Let’s face it: Sameness isn’t something we crave as enthusiasts. It might make cars easier and cheaper to produce, but it doesn’t do anything to give them character. At the same time, having parts that interchange across manufacturers is a boon for the DIYer, who will find it easier to source replacements when things inevitably break. At best, this seems like a wash. At worst, it sounds like a win for the accountants.
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Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
