Honda is outsourcing platform development to India’s Tata Technologies to save costs

In this day and age of “adapt or perish”, many legacy automakers have admittedly been caught with their pants down as new brands have flourished in this age of electrification, especially those from China. Honda is one legacy brand that has been hit the hardest, having reported its first annual loss recently and culling several electric vehicles such as the 0 Series to stay afloat.

Now, according to a report from Bloomberg, it appears that Honda is taking more drastic measures as it has outsourced development of a brand-new vehicle program to India, specifically Tata Technologies Ltd., the engineering and services firm, to reduce costs and shorten development cycles.

Models like the Honda Elevate/WR-V are assembled in India and exported globally, but this is the very first time that Honda has ever done that, as most, if not all, of its vehicles, especially those made with its Chinese joint ventures, have been developed in-house.

This new platform is said to underpin multiple models, spanning different powertrains like internal combustion, electrified, and full battery electric. Bloomberg’s source did not specify further, nor which markets the Tata-engineered vehicles will be sold in.

In fact, they aren’t the only brands outsourcing vehicle development to India, with the likes of Mercedes-Benz and BMW doing the same for operational efficiency. But it’s obvious that automakers are now targeting the Indian market as it is growing to become one of the more lucrative markets in the world, with automakers like Maruti Suzuki, Toyota, and Nissan building and exporting models made in India.

Do you think that this is the right move for Honda to do, or should they lean towards what the likes of Nissan are doing by relying on its joint venture with Dongfeng in China to save costs and accelerate development times for global models?

^{Photos from Honda, Nissan, Sam Surla, and Julian Panlilio}