Nissan and Honda have made official what was already an open secret in the Japanese automotive sector. Both companies have started and created a new Japanese motor giant, in the midst of the war that traditional automobile brands maintain with Chinese firms in the field of electric vehicles. The plans, presented by Nissan and Honda this Monday at a press conference in Japan, indicate that negotiations should end in June 2025, and then take the new manufacturer public in August 2026, as explained in a conference call. joint press.
The new company would definitively absorb the original corporations, which would be excluded from the market. Mitsubishi, a smaller company owned 24.5% by Nissan, is also considering participating in the merger, and in fact was also at the press conference. The signed understanding commitment does not clarify the distribution of shares between the companies, although it does specify that Honda will have room to appoint “the majority of directors” in the new group.
In sales volume, the resulting automobile company would be only behind the Volkswagen group, currently mired in a serious crisis in Germany, where it is maintaining tough negotiations with the unions to carry out severe cost cutting; and Toyota, the largest vehicle manufacturer in the world, both in sales and profits. Between January and June of this year, Toyota registered 5.16 million cars, compared to 4.34 million for Volkswagen and the 3.65 million sold between Nissan and Honda, although the latter also has an important motorcycle business. . In this way, a giant would be created with combined sales of 191 billion dollars (183 billion euros) and an operating profit of 19.1 billion dollars (18.3 billion euros).
Currently, Honda has a stock market value of 40 billion dollars (38.4 billion euros), while Nissan’s market capitalization is around 10 billion dollars (9.6 billion euros). This is the largest integration in the automotive sector since it was established, in an operation valued at 52 billion dollars (50 billion euros).
Traditional brands in the sector are grappling with the challenges posed by the new electrical paradigm, particularly in China, where BYD and other local manufacturers dominate. In March, Honda and Nissan agreed to cooperate on their electric vehicle businesses and in August deepened their ties, agreeing to work together on batteries, electric axles and other technologies. But that message didn’t seem to be enough. In November, and reduce capacity by 20% after the collapse of sales in China and the United States, while Honda also presented results well below expectations as a result of its worse performance in the Asian giant.
Although Nissan closed its car production plant in Barcelona at the end of 2021, the automobile company led by Makoto Uchida maintains two Spanish spare parts factories in Cantabria and Ávila, which between them employ around 1,000 people. The company’s restructuring plans would not affect these factories, but would be focused on , where the company has suffered increased sales costs and excess inventory. In the North American market, Nissan suffers from the still low adoption of electric cars (where Tesla clearly dominates) and the low popularity of its E-Power hybrid technology.
