Honda and Nissan refused to merge into one car company

Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan refused to merge into a single auto concern, which would have cost $60 billion, Reuters reported on February 13, citing its sources. According to them, in the course of negotiations, the companies faced a lot of disagreements. In particular, the Nissan management did not appreciate the idea of becoming a subsidiary of Honda.

Nissan and Honda were exploring options for cooperation to compete with Chinese electric car makers. The merger would have created the world's fourth-largest car company by sales volume after Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai. As reported last December, Mitsubishi, of which Nissan is the largest shareholder, has also discussed the possibility of joining the holding company.

Now Nissan is open to cooperation with new partners, one of the most likely options is the Taiwanese company Foxconn, sources of the publication.

It is noted that Nissan has not been able to recover from years of crisis and management turmoil caused by the arrest and resignation of former head of the company Carlos Ghosn in 2018. According to the restructuring plan announced in November 2024, Nissan will cut 9,000 jobs and reduce global capacity by 20%.

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On January 30, the Toyota Motor concern shared global sales statistics. By the end of 2024, the Japanese company sold 10.82 million cars, including Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino brands, and became the world's largest automaker for the fifth time in a row.