Nissan and Honda plan to enter into negotiations for a merger to better compete in the rapidly changing automotive industry, the Nikkei newspaper reported.
  • bdonvr@thelemmy.clubEnglish
    28·
    19 hours ago

    Oh yay more whittling down of an already conglomerated industry surely this will be good for people

    • مهما طال الليل@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      4 hours ago

      Japanese companies have a history of consolidating to be able to compete with foreign companies. This is in response to the sudden rise of Chinese companies and China replacing Japan as the top automotive exporter.

  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    45·
    23 hours ago

    That sounds like a disaster for Honda. Nissan doesn’t hardly have anything to offer except supply/sales volume. Honda beats them on engine tech, transmission tech, chassis tech, basically everything. Honda has lots to lose by taking on their mess, and Nissan doesn’t.

      • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        51·
        21 hours ago

        That’s still only a single model that is <8% of Nissan’s already abysmal US sales volume. Nissan’s massive pile of garbage that fills up the rest of portfolio (and institutional problems behind the scenes) is absolutely NOT worth dealing with for the technology in a single model like that, even if it is “necessary” to offer to ensure compliance eith wishy washy regulatory soon-to-be’s. They would be much better off clean-slating their own, EV tech is significantly easier to develop compared to new ICE designs and if anyone is capable of that, it’s Honda.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
          142·
          20 hours ago

          It’s a single model and virtually the only model of EV less affluent Americans can afford. That’s a huge market.

          • CmdrShepard42@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            15 hours ago

            It is a big, untapped market but it’s not a big market for the Leaf. Tesla sold 3x more Model 3 in the last year alone than Nissan has sold in the entire 14 year production run of the Leaf. It’s a hot mess.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
              22·
              10 hours ago

              The Model 3 is over $40,000. It’s selling more because Americans are barely even aware cheaper EVs exist.

    • fuzzywombat@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      22 hours ago

      I absolutely agree with you there. For consumer space this merger doesn’t make sense for Honda. For Nissan share holder, this is fantastic… Only thing I can think of is Nissan has some EV tech that Honda could use but that’s quite the stretch. Nissan actually jumped into EV relatively early but they didn’t iterate on it quickly enough to matter. Honda has been dragging their feet on EV and they both completely missed the boat on bridge tech offering like plug in hybrid. This merger isn’t going to do anything to fix that.

      Since Nissan is now a low end brand and Honda is moving more towards premium side perhaps being together would cover the market segments better. The merger absolutely does nothing for the high end market though.

      The one thing that I don’t know anything about is the commercial market domestically in Japan. Perhaps Nissan has good market share which Honda could gain from this merger. Maybe someone could chime in on this.

    • Lag@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      22 hours ago

      Public perception is also a factor. Even seeing collaborated cars like their EV Chevy thing takes away from Honda’s perception of reliability.

  • SGforceEnglish
    25·
    23 hours ago

    Nissan has been a dumpster fire for two decades. Honda should steer clear.

    • Addv4@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19·
      23 hours ago

      Nissan holds a majority stake with Mitsubishi. That actually might be worth something to Honda, and they also seem to be able to produce some cheap evs, like the leaf which Honda doesn’t seem able to do currently.

      • CmdrShepard42@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        15 hours ago

        Mitsubishi the conglomerate or Mitsubishi the automaker? The former seems good but not the latter.

        • Addv4@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          8 hours ago

          Auto I believe, but that still might be useful. They have access to Cummins engines, which are basically one of the only manufacturers that meet the next phase of ghg emissions requirements. Plus since Honda seems to be retooling their factories for solid state batteries, it might allow them to produce some stop gap evs without relying on other manufacturers like GM (Hondas latest is just a rebadged Chevy Blazer EV).

    • john89English
      1·
      1 hour ago

      I dunno. There are some very enthusiastic Honda fanboys that will be watching like a hawk.

      This could just be Nissan reading the writing on the wall and choosing to do something about it before it’s too late.

      Honda still needs to rely on more than “nationalism” to sell their cars, unlike American brands.