Nissan, Honda announce plans to consider merger

Japanese automakers Nissan and Honda agreed to consider a merger and create a joint holding company that would create the world’s third-largest automaker.

The two companies said in a statement Monday that they would seek combined sales of $191 billion and an operating profit of more than $19 billion through the potential merger.

The companies hope to conclude negotiations around June 2025 and establish a holding company in August 2026, when both companies’ shares will be delisted.

The merger talks come as both automakers struggle to compete with the biggest global electric car makers, including Tesla and Chinese automaker BYD.

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Makoto Uchida (left), director, representative managing director, president and CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation and Toshihiro Mibe (right), director, president and representative managing director of Honda, hold a joint press conference on their merger (Reuters / Reuters photos)

The merger would create the world’s third largest car group by car sales, behind Toyota and Volkswagen.

Honda, the second-largest Japanese automaker behind Toyota, has a market value of more than $40 billion, while third-place Nissan is valued at about $10 billion.

“Today marks a pivotal moment as we begin business integration discussions that have the potential to shape our future,” Nissan executive, president, CEO and representative CEO Makoto Uchida said in a statement. “If realized, I believe that by combining the strengths of both companies, we can deliver unparalleled value to customers around the world who value our respective brands. Together, we can create a unique way for them to enjoy cars like no other ​​the companies could achieve alone.”

The Honda-Nissan merger would create the world’s third-largest car group in terms of car sales. (Reuters / Reuters photos)

Honda’s director and representative CEO Toshihiro Mibe said: “The creation of new mobility value by pooling the resources, including knowledge, talents and technologies that Honda and Nissan have developed over the long years, is essential to overcome challenging environmental changes, that the automotive industry has developed.

“Honda and Nissan are two companies with distinctive strengths,” Mibe added. “We are still in the process of starting our review and we have not decided on a business integration yet, but to find a direction for the possibility of business integration before the end of January 2025, we strive to be the one and only leading company creating new mobility value through chemical reaction that can only be driven through synthesis by the two teams.”

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Honda and Nissan also agreed to extend cooperation to Mitsubishi Motors. (Reuters / Reuters photos)

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The majority of the holding company’s board will be appointed by Honda.

The companies have been exploring ways to strengthen their partnership, including saying in March they were considering partnerships on electrification and vehicle intelligence and announcing in August an agreement to conduct joint research on fundamental technologies in platforms for next-generation software-defined vehicles .

They also agreed to extend the collaboration to Mitsubishi Motors.

Reuters contributed to this report.