(In the 6th paragraph the quote was correctly attributed to Nissan boss Makoto Uchida, ROUNDUP was added to the heading))
TOKYO (dpa-AFX) – The Japanese car manufacturers Honda (Honda Motor) and Nissan (Nissan Motor) are talking about a merger in view of the tough competition in electric vehicles and want to involve Mitsubishi Motors in it. The three companies announced an agreement to begin talks at a short-term press conference.
Honda and Nissan, Japan’s second and third largest carmakers, want to complete negotiations by June 2025. Nissan’s partner Mitsubishi Motors wants to decide by the end of January whether the group will participate in a merger, the companies said.
New car giant would move to Toyota (Toyota Motor) and VW (Volkswagen (VW) vz).
Honda and Nissan are considering a holding company for August 2026. Together, they would form the third largest car company in the world with sales of more than eight million vehicles, moving closer to Toyota and Volkswagen (Volkswagen (VW) vz). They want to pool their resources to better compete with Tesla and Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers.
Japanese car manufacturers have fallen behind globally in this area. Tesla and the Chinese manufacturer BYD are putting pressure on the Japanese in the USA and China. Nissan has particularly struggled in the Chinese market, where sales have fallen significantly.
Cooperation has been known since March
Nissan and Honda had already announced in March that they would work together on the development of electric vehicles and software technologies in order to reduce their costs and improve their competitiveness. Mitsubishi Motors joined these discussions in August.
“Honda and Nissan have begun to consider business integration and will explore creating significant synergies between the two companies in a variety of areas,” said Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida.
Nissan under pressure – group restructuring initiated
Nissan is under economic pressure. The company only announced in November that it would cut around 9,000 jobs worldwide. Among other things, global production capacities will be reduced by 20 percent and management will be reorganized, it said.
In addition, the group, which has around 134,000 employees, lowered its forecast for the second time this year. The targeted operating profit for the current financial year was revised downwards from 500 billion yen to 150 billion yen (equivalent to around 905 million euros).
Nissan is not the only car manufacturer in crisis. In recent months, a number of manufacturers and suppliers have announced large-scale job cuts, including VW, Bosch and Schaeffler. Mercedes-Benz (Mercedes-Benz Group (ex Daimler)) has also announced austerity measures. Volkswagen is also having a hard time with the tough competition on the Chinese market: the car manufacturer wants to cut more than 35,000 jobs in a socially responsible manner by 2030. Contrary to what was feared, there will initially be no complete plant closures./ln/als/DP/nas
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