Auto industry
Honda and Nissan are in merger talks – Mitsubishi involved
Japanese carmakers have fallen behind globally in electric vehicles. Nissan and Honda are now in talks about merging into a holding company. Mitsubishi Motors will be added.
The Japanese carmakers Honda and Nissan are in talks about a merger in view of the tough global 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.
Honda and Nissan are considering a holding company for August 2026. Together, with sales of more than eight million vehicles, they would form the third largest car company in the world and move closer to Toyota and Volkswagen. They want to pool their resources to better compete against Tesla and Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers. Japanese car manufacturers have fallen behind globally in this area.
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 Honda CEO Makoto Uchida. It is significant that Nissan – the largest shareholder in Mitsubishi Motors – is also involved in these discussions, it said.
dpa
Source: Stern
