- Honda Cars and Nissan Motor are among the top three carmakers from Japan which also operate in India.
Japanese auto giants Honda and Nissan may soon join hands in a collaborated effort to grow in terms of sales as well as compete against rivals such as Toyota Motor and Tesla, BYD in the electric vehicle segment. According to media reports, the two carmakers are involved in preliminary talks on a possible merger in coming days. Nissan Motor is currently struggling to keep cost down with layoffs. The new merger would mean that Nissan will severe ties with the French auto giant Renault.
Honda and Nissan are the largest carmakers in Japan in terms of volumes and are placed after Toyota Motor. All three also operate in global markets, including India. Toyota is among the top five carmakers in India with popular models like the Fortuner, Innova HyCross, Urban Cruiser HyRyder among others. Honda and Nissan Motor are placed much lower with minor very little share in India. Honda sells models like the City, Amaze and Elevate while Nissan has two models on sale – the Magnite and X-Trail SUVs.
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The seed of the speculation of a Honda-Nissan merger was laid back in March this year when the two Japanese carmakers had agreed to explore strategic partnership in the electric vehicle segment. The tie-up not only aims to take on bigger carmakers like Toyota, but also some of the EV giants like Tesla and Chinese electric vehicle makers like BYD.
Honda-Nissan merger: How the carmakers reacted
Honda and Nissan has not denied the media reports outright. A Honda spokesperson reacted to the reports saying, “We are discussing possibilities for cooperation between Honda and Nissan in the future, in a wide range of fields and in various areas, and those possibilities include the latest reports, but there is nothing decided.”
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Nissan Motor also issued a statement on Wednesday saying, “The content of the report is not something that has been announced by either company. As announced in March of this year, Honda and Nissan are exploring various possibilities for future collaboration, leveraging each other’s strengths. If there are any updates, we will inform our stakeholders at the appropriate time.”
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The speculation comes at a time when Nissan Motor is facing major financial crunch. In November, Nissan had announced 9,000 job cuts around the world. The carmaker had also said it will reduce global production capacity by 20 percent. Makoto Uchida, its CEO, had even said he is ready to forfeit half his salary to help the carmaker stay afloat.
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First Published Date: 18 Dec 2024, 08:52 AM IST
