On December 23, 2024, Nissan and Honda signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to discover a possible merger. Nevertheless, the negotiations didn’t final lengthy earlier than the 2 Japanese automakers parted methods. On February 13, 2025, the businesses formally ended talks, partly as a result of Nissan was towards turning into a Honda subsidiary. Whereas the 2 are nonetheless collaborating on electrification and software program, a full-blown merger is off the desk.
Earlier than the deal collapsed, Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda stated in January at CES that Nissan by no means approached Toyota a couple of super-merger. He believes it wouldn’t have occurred anyway, as making a single mega-company would possible have violated anti-monopoly legal guidelines. Nevertheless, it has now emerged that Toyota allegedly reached out to Nissan a couple of doable alliance following the failed merger with Honda.
Photograph by: Nissan
Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun nationwide newspaper (by way of Automotive Information) claims {that a} Toyota government spoke with Nissan about some type of partnership. Nissan declined to touch upon the matter, whereas Toyota remains to be reviewing the report earlier than issuing an official assertion.
Toyota, the world’s largest automaker for the fifth consecutive yr, already holds shares in a number of Japanese automobile producers. It owns 20 p.c of Subaru, a 5.1 p.c stake in Mazda, 4.9 p.c of Suzuki, and 5.9 p.c of Isuzu. We will solely think about how sophisticated it might have been had Toyota and Nissan exchanged shares.
We recall what Toyoda stated after the press convention Nissan and Honda held when the MOU was signed. The chairman expressed disappointment over the dearth of product-focused particulars. As an alternative, the shared doc used buzzwords like “enterprise integration” and “synergies,” aiming to rework Japan right into a “main world mobility firm.”
Photograph by: Nissan
Nissan has since addressed the dearth of product route by saying a wave of recent car launches throughout all world areas. It’s additionally leaning on alliance companions Renault and Mitsubishi for badge-engineered fashions to considerably scale back the time to market. Nearer ties with China’s Dongfeng are evident within the new N7 electrical sedan and the Frontier Professional plug-in hybrid pickup truck.
Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa just lately said that the corporate is open to new collaborations, however the prime precedence is to stabilize internally. The Re:Nissan plan contains main cost-cutting measures comparable to eliminating 20,000 jobs, closing seven factories, and drastically lowering R&D spending. It additionally goals to chop elements complexity by 70 p.c and discontinue six car architectures, all whereas persevering with to spend money on the Infiniti luxurious model.
As for a way Nissan ended up on this state of affairs, Espinosa just lately defined it started in 2015 when Carlos Ghosn was nonetheless in cost. The objective was to spice up annual car gross sales to eight million models by closely investing in manufacturing and workforce. Nevertheless, gross sales for fiscal yr 2024 (April 1, 2024 – March 31, 2025) totaled solely 3.3 million autos.
Talking of Ghosn, he claims Nissan is in a “determined state of affairs” and that Honda had deliberate a “disguised takeover.” Though the 2 not focus on a merger, a tie-up in “car intelligence and electrification” remains to be within the works.
Supply:
The Mainichi by way of Automotive Information
