Makoto Uchida, President and CEO of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Mibe Toshihiro Mibe, President and CEO of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. attend a joint press conference in Tokyo, Japan on March 15, 2024.
Kyodo News | Reuters
DETROIT – Japanese automaker Nissan and honda cars The company reportedly plans to enter into merger talks to better compete in the rapidly changing global auto industry, Nikkei reported on Tuesday.
Honda and Nissan are reportedly considering operating under a holding company and will soon sign a memorandum of understanding. They also hope to eventually bring Mitsubishi Motors into the holding company, of which Nissan is the largest shareholder with a 24% stake.
According to the “Nikkei Shimbun” report, the annual sales volume of the Nissan-Honda-Mitsubishi merger will exceed 8 million vehicles. That would put the company among the world’s largest automakers, but still below its Japanese peers. Toyota Motorexist 11.2 million in 2023, and the German automaker Volkswagenreported sales last year were 9.2 million vehicle.
In similar statements, Honda and Nissan neither confirmed nor denied the report: “The contents of the report were not published by our company,” Honda said. “As announced in March this year, Honda and Nissan are exploring various possibilities for future collaboration to fully leverage each other’s strengths. We will update stakeholders on any updates in due course.”
The merger report follows the two Japanese automakers’ strategic partnership earlier this year to share vehicle parts and software.
The tie-up would be the largest auto industry merger since the formation of Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Group star January 2021.
Auto consultants and other experts have recently been calling for Increase in mergers and acquisitions Share costs and better compete with rapidly expanding Chinese automakers and the U.S. all-electric vehicle leader Tesla.
Honda’s U.S.-listed shares were up about 2% in midday trading on Tuesday. over the counter Nissan shares An increase of more than 11%.
