(Photos courtesy of Nissan, Honda, and Mitsubishi)
Earlier this month, we shared news that Nissan seems to be in dire straits and may only have 12-14 months left to live. As we’ve seen before, one way of staying in business is merging with another company. That could possibly not only save Nissan, but also save both automakers money in development costs. Nissan’s lifeline may just come from inside its home country. According to a report from the business publication Nikkei, “Honda Motor and Nissan Motor will begin merger talks as early as Monday as the two automakers seek to create a group that can rival Japanese leader Toyota Motor in capital-intensive fields like electric vehicles.” Another target? Chinese EV manufacturers and Tesla.
If this comes to pass, it wouldn’t be all that shocking (no pun intended). Back in August, Nissan and Honda agreed to work together on platforms for future software-defined vehicles (SDVs), which Bosch defines as those in which software shapes the customer experience and sometimes even the hardware’s specifications. The same month, Nissan, Honda, and Mitsubishi signed a memorandum of understanding about working together on vehicle electrification and intelligence.
Mitsubishi has been involved with Nissan for years through its alliance with them and Renault. The French automaker currently has a 15 percent stake in Nissan. In early November, Mitsubishi bought back 10.02 percent of the total number of shares it issued to Nissan, reducing its stake in Mitsubishi from 34.07 percent to a 24.05 percent. For now, the official line from Mitsubishi is no decisions have been made regarding future collaboration between Nissan and Honda.
There’s a fourth company in the mix, according to InsideEVs. Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn, one of Apple’s suppliers, wanted to buy a chunk of Nissan directly. Reportedly, Honda threatened to walk away from everything if that happened and Foxconn is going to reach out to Renault to try to purchase some of Nissan.
Nothing is definite yet, but typically, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. It’s no mystery that it’s in automakers’ best interests to spread costs and one way of doing that is through working with another company. The question is, given Nissan’s current state, would a merger with Honda be good for both companies or only Nissan? We’ll just have to wait and Z.