Honda denies report on partnership with GM

Tokyo, Jan 7: Japan’s Honda Motor Company denied on Monday a report that it will cooperate with the US auto giant General Motors Corp to recycle scrapped cars in Europe.

“We have not had such discussions with GM,” a Honda spokesman said, declining to be named. “We are not considering such a joint effort at this point,” he said. The statement scotches a report in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper which said Honda had decided to work with GM because the Japanese carmaker held just one per cent of the European market, making it difficult to operate a recycling network on its own.

“The Japanese carmaker will rely on the GM group’s network to collect scrapped cars across Europe, and intends to exchange information on technology to disassemble cars and recycle car parts,” the Nihon Keizai said.

“Both companies want to cooperate to reduce costs because regulations requiring automakers to collect scrapped cars free of charge will be introduced in phases from July in Europe,” it said.
The paper said the two companies were now negotiating the terms under which the used-car collection network, operated by Adam Opel AG, GM’s wholly owned subsidiary in Germany, will collect Honda vehicles in Germany, the UK and France.

— PTI