Honda Motor and Nissan Motor are exploring a merger to create one of the world’s largest auto groups as they seek to better position themselves for the expensive technological transition reshaping the automotive industry.
On Monday, Honda and Nissan signed a memorandum of understanding to formally begin talks aimed at deepening a partnership that began earlier this year. Over the next six months, the companies will discuss combining their operations under a holding company, with a plan to complete the merger in August 2026.
With their plans for a merger, Japan’s second- and third-largest automakers join a growing number of legacy auto giants, including General Motors and Volkswagen, that are deepening ties to share the financial burden of developing next-generation vehicles. The deal is seen as a lifeline in particular for Nissan, which has been slashing jobs and production amid faltering sales.
Unlike the gasoline-powered cars that have defined the industry for most of the past century, more vehicles today are being equipped with batteries, electric motors and advanced software that enable features such as autonomous driving.
Analysts say that to navigate this transition, carmakers need to produce and sell vehicles in significant volumes.
In recent years, automakers across Japan, the United States and Europe have invested billions of dollars into electric vehicle development — efforts that, for the most part, have yet to generate profits. These investments are being financed by sales of higher-margin gasoline and hybrid models, which also require continuous investment.
With electric vehicle-sales growth slowing and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump gearing up to eliminate E.V. tax incentives, automakers must figure out how to sustain investments in gasoline and battery-powered cars for an extended period of time, said Takaki Nakanishi, head of the automotive consulting firm Nakanishi Research Institute in Tokyo.
“To sustain these dual investments, automakers need scale and the operational efficiencies that come with it,” Mr. Nakanishi said. “If Nissan and Honda are not able to achieve this, they will not survive,” he said. “Times are truly that tough.”
Nissan sells more than 3 million vehicles a year, while Honda sells nearly 4 million. A merger would position them as the world’s third-largest automaker group, behind Toyota, whose brands sold 11 million vehicles last year, and Volkswagen, which sold 9 million.
The key question is whether even large, combined entities like Honda and Nissan can keep up with newer competitors. The American company Tesla and China’s BYD have already established a commanding lead in electric vehicles and car technologies that can be updated over the air like smartphones.
Automotive mergers have a long history of failing to meet expectations and ultimately falling apart. DaimlerChrysler split after nine years of a mostly unhappy marriage. Stellantis was formed in the 2021 merger of Fiat Chrysler and the French PSA Group, and the chief executive who helped engineer the pairing, Carlos Tavares, resigned under pressure this month.
Last year, Nissan and its longtime French partner, Renault, agreed to take steps to unwind their alliance. Around the same time, Honda and G.M. decided to scrap a plan to develop a line of lower-priced electric vehicles, less than two years after the companies announced the joint effort.
Even with expanded scale, Honda and Nissan will need to prove that their partnership can speed their development of new vehicles, said Tang Jin, a senior researcher at Mizuho Bank. If they cannot create some kind of “chemical reaction” of new value by coming together, he said, “their merging will simply become a gathering of the weak.”
Already in China, the world’s largest car market, it may be too late for Honda, Nissan and many Western automakers to make up ground lost to cost-competitive and technologically advanced local rivals. For the fiscal year ending March 31, Nissan has projected a 13 percent drop in its sales in China, while Honda expects an even steeper decline.
Nissan’s struggles in China contributed to a 90 percent plunge in its operating profit to $214 million during the first half of the current fiscal year. Last month, Nissan said it would make deep cuts to its global operations, and in the weeks since, it has been circled by a number of groups including activist investors.
Compared with Nissan, Honda’s financial position remains relatively healthy. Honda turned a $1.8 billion profit in the recent July-September quarter, but that was down 15 percent from a year earlier because of higher research- and-development costs and weak sales in China.
“Nissan’s current decline could very well be Honda’s tomorrow,” said Mr. Nakanishi, the industry consultant. That is something Honda recognizes. “It realizes its best shot is to combine with Nissan, share a common destiny and try to overcome the impending crisis together,” he said.
The post Honda and Nissan Unveil Merger Talks as Global Competition Bears Down appeared first on New York Times.
