Good luck with that! They better hope that Musk and Trump keep the Chinese out of the US. Hey wait a minute...there's the rest of the world.
BTW, BYD the world's largest seller of EV cars started as a battery company which they produce at a discount of approx $5,000 per car compared to Tesla and everybody else. Ouch.
Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi may merge to compete with Tesla and China's EV makers
If completed, it would be the biggest industry shakeup since Stellantis was created in 2021
By William Gavin
PublishedYesterday
The executives of Nissan Motor, Honda Motor, and Mitsubishi Motors on Monday said merger talks had begun to create the third-largest auto group in the world.
Nissan Motor and Honda Motor have officially begun talks to merge by 2026 as Japan’s automakers seek an edge over tough Chinese rivals and Tesla/
On Monday, the carmakers said they would explore placing both Nissan and Honda under a joint holding company, which would create the world’s third-largest auto group by vehicle sales. Only Toyota Motor, Japan’s leading carmaker, and Volkswagen, the leader in Europe, would outmatch the group by sales.
Nissan and Mitsubishi stock pop because a Honda mega-merger might be coming
The merger of Japan’s second and third-largest automaker would mark the biggest shakeup in the industry since 2021, when Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the PSA Group combined to launch Stellantis, which operates over a dozen brands.
“If realized, I believe that by uniting the strengths of both companies, we can deliver unparalleled value to customers worldwide who appreciate our respective brands,” Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said in a statement. “Together, we can create a unique way for them to enjoy cars that neither company could achieve alone.”
Nissan and Honda may not be alone in this venture either. They’re also considering Mitsubishi Motor as a potential third partner in the venture; Nissan is the firm’s largest shareholder. Whether Mitsubishi will join will be announced by the end of next month, the companies said.
Nissan and Honda plan to finish talks around June 2025 before establishing a holding company about a year later, with shares being delisted around that time. Honda will appoint the majority of the future firm’s board of directors.
“At this time of change in the automobile industry, which is said to occur once every 100 years, we hope that Mitsubishi Motors’ participation in the business integration discussions of Nissan and Honda will lead to further social change, and that we will be able to become a leading company in creating new value in mobility through business integration,” Honda CEO Toshiro Mibe said in a statement.
At a press conference in Tokyo on Monday, Mibe said that the “rise of Chinese automakers and new players has changed the car industry quite a lot,” adding that the companies need to strengthen their offerings by 2030, “otherwise we’ll be beaten.”
Honda and Nissan began exploring partnerships in March, although the companies said at the time that they would be focused on collaborating on electric vehicles and related components to better compete with Tesla and Chinese automakers. In August, they agreed to work together and added Mitsubishi as a potential third collaborator.
In response to weak sales, Nissan said last month that it plans to slash 9,000 jobs and a fifth of its production capacity after sales dropped in China and the U.S. Honda posted a 15% decline in operating profit for its last quarter, along with a sales miss led by the Chinese market over the past nine months. Honda and Nissan pulled some production in China earlier this year, with the former scaling back its partnerships with local partners as its once-biggest market has become more competitive.
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