Honda and Nissan are preparing to start negotiations on a possible merger, which could ultimately be expanded to include Mitsubishi, Japan’s Nikkei reported
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Nissan is doing extremely poorly. The company has become an unwanted burden to Renault, who is looking to sell their stake in Nissan. Nissan cannot stay afloat on their own, so they need a partner.
Exceedingly poor management is to blame, and will likely continue to be problematic through any merger
Nissan's management allowed Carlos Ghosn and his followers to lead the company down an unsustainable course in the name of volume at any cost.
The result is a brand reputation that is almost unsavable and an lineup of cars and components that simply cannot be successful.
Ghosn's obsession with CVTs and Levi of engineering progress did a lot of damage.
Meanwhile, Infiniti has seen a revolving door of inept leaders who have each don't progressive harm to that brand before dashing out the door to escape the rot.
With Ghosn gone, things have already started to improve (new automatic transmissions including licensed copies of Mercedes designs) but there are over 25 years of damage to reverse, and that will take time Nissan may not have.
Nissan faced bankruptcy in the 1990s due to mismanagement and lack of efficiency, but they also made above average vehicles that had a very good reputation. Ghosn and Renault burned that reputation to fuel their volume sales machine, and now all that's left is a smoldering ruin.
Oh, another thought I just had:
EVs.
Honda has been reluctant to enter the EV market. Their only current offering is a Chevy, and Honda buyers can tell.
Nissan's EV platform would give them a ready-made in-house solution with minimal investment.
I don’t think Honda has any issues engineering that themselves. It’s a pretty well known tech at this point. The sad thing is if they mothball large parts of Nissan we lose a lot of auto engineering history especially in the 350z and GTR. :’(
I can appreciate that Nissan has earned the L though.
You're right. However, both Honda and Toyota have been obstinately reluctant to enter the EV market. Part of it, I think, stems from antiquated attitudes at the highest management levels.
Honda doesn't WANT to engineer it themselves. This gives them an out.
I suspect it's mostly just the elimination of a competitor. While Nissan may well collapse if left alone, another large partner could rescue the brand and increase completion for Honda.
But I suspect any prospective merger would likely result in the corpse of Nissan being picked clean.
They are certainly beginning to creak ominously under their own weight. They over-committed and now have no idea how to successfully manage and market so many overlapping brands. I'm not sure they actually ever had a plan; it seems like they just expected their sheer scale to make them successful.
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"Preparing to start negotiations!"
Mitsubishi should fade away…
I assumed both companies were doing well
Exceedingly poor management is to blame, and will likely continue to be problematic through any merger
The result is a brand reputation that is almost unsavable and an lineup of cars and components that simply cannot be successful.
Meanwhile, Infiniti has seen a revolving door of inept leaders who have each don't progressive harm to that brand before dashing out the door to escape the rot.
EVs.
Honda has been reluctant to enter the EV market. Their only current offering is a Chevy, and Honda buyers can tell.
Nissan's EV platform would give them a ready-made in-house solution with minimal investment.
I can appreciate that Nissan has earned the L though.
Honda doesn't WANT to engineer it themselves. This gives them an out.
But I suspect any prospective merger would likely result in the corpse of Nissan being picked clean.
I expect they'll attempt to streamline first. More platform sharing and then branding for local market.
Best guess is a split between Euro and NA brands.
Nissan was early on EVs, but they're not cutting edge tech right now, and they're playing catch-up on hybrids.
This would increase Honda's production capacity, of course, but it still seems unlike them.