Honda and Nissan have formally confirmed rumors that they are pursuing a merger, the businesses wrote in a joint press launch. Every would proceed to function underneath its personal model, however with a brand new joint holding firm as dad or mum. If Nissan-controlled Mitsubishi additionally got here on board, the mixed group would grow to be the world’s third largest automaker by gross sales quantity and have a internet price of as much as $50 billion.
“Today marks a pivotal moment as we begin discussions on business integration that has the potential to shape our future,” stated Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida.
Integration talks are nonetheless preliminary, however the corporations are urgent ahead. “We are still at the stage of starting our review and we have not decided on a business integration yet,” stated Honda director Toshihiro Mibe. Nevertheless, he added that the businesses intention “to find a direction for the possibility of business integration by the end of January 2025.” After that, they hope to have a “definitive agreement” regarding enterprise integration by June 2025. Approval should come from every firm’s shareholders and is topic to Nissan executing a turnaround.
Nissan and Honda beforehand introduced plans to work collectively on EV elements and software program growth, however the joint firm could be much more built-in. In line with the press launch, the plan consists of: standardizing automobile platforms; unifying analysis and growth groups; and optimizing manufacturing programs and services. All of that’s often designed to chop prices, so it might spell important layoffs in Japan and elsewhere.
Although the 2 corporations promote comparable automobiles like Nissan’s Rogue and the Honda CR-V, some synergy appears attainable. Nissan sells giant pickup vehicles and SUVs within the US that Honda does not supply and likewise has extra expertise in EVs and plug-in electrical automobiles. On the opposite facet, Honda has comparatively steady financials whereas Nissan has been struggling out there, notably at residence.
After all, Nissan is already within the Renault-Nissan-Misubishi Alliance. Nissan and Renault maintain a 15 p.c voting stake within the different, and all three bought a mixed 10.6 million automobiles worldwide in 2017, greater than another gentle automobile producer on the time. The Alliance can be one of many largest EV makers on the planet, with over 1 million items bought since 2009. If Nissan and Honda merged, it isn’t clear what would grow to be of the Alliance.
