Carlos Ghosn: Nissan-Honda Merger Plan Is a ‘Determined Transfer’

• Nissan and Honda are reportedly contemplating a merger.
• However former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn mentioned the transfer means that Nissan is in “panic mode.”
• “There may be virtually no complementarity between the 2 corporations,” Ghosn instructed Bloomberg on Friday.

The potential merger between Japanese automakers Nissan and Honda is a “determined transfer,” mentioned Carlos Ghosn, Nissan’s former CEO.

On Tuesday, Japanese newspaper Nikkei mentioned the 2 corporations are getting into into merger negotiations.

Pooling their sources would permit Nissan and Honda to higher compete towards rivals within the electrical car house like Tesla and China’s EV makers, the outlet reported.

Honda and Nissan are the second and third largest automakers in Japan, respectively. Their native rival, Toyota, is the world’s greatest automaker.

A Nissan-Honda merger would end result on the earth’s third-largest automotive firm by quantity.

Final week, Nissan and Honda instructed Enterprise Insider that they’re “contemplating varied potentialities for future collaboration” however added that “no choices have been made.”

Ghosn mentioned in an interview with Bloomberg on Friday that pursuing a merger with Honda means that Nissan is in “panic mode.”

“It is not a realistic deal as a result of frankly, the synergies between the 2 corporations are troublesome to search out,” Ghosn mentioned.

“There may be virtually no complementarity between the 2 corporations. They’re on the identical markets. They’ve the identical merchandise. The manufacturers are very comparable,” he added.

Ghosn, Nissan, and Honda didn’t reply to requests for remark from BI.

Ghosn, as soon as thought of a legend within the auto trade, skilled a dramatic fall from grace in 2018.

The previous CEO and chairman of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance was arrested in Japan and charged with monetary crimes in November 2018.

Ghosn was detained in a Japanese jail for over 100 days, earlier than he fled the nation by smuggling himself to Lebanon in a musical-instrument case in December 2019.

The disgraced auto chief has maintained his innocence. Final yr, Ghosn filed a billion-dollar lawsuit towards Nissan in Lebanon for damaging his funds and repute.

On Friday, Ghosn instructed Bloomberg that the Japanese authorities — particularly Japan’s Ministry of Financial system, Commerce, and Trade — was doubtless behind the Nissan-Honda merger talks.

“So on the finish of the day, they’re making an attempt to determine one thing that would marry the short-term issues of Nissan and the long-term imaginative and prescient of Honda,” Ghosn mentioned.

The merger talks come at a precarious time for Nissan, which has been grappling with falling earnings and decreased gross sales this yr. Final month, Nissan reduce 9,000 jobs globally in a bid to cut back prices. The corporate’s inventory is down 20.7% this yr.

Nissan can be going through elevated competitors from Chinese language EV makers like BYD, as automakers vie for market share in growing markets like Southeast Asia and Latin America. Information compiled by the know-how agency ABI Analysis for BI confirmed that Chinese language carmakers accounted for 70% of the EV market in Thailand and 88% in Brazil within the first quarter of this yr.

Nissan initially led the EV race when it launched the world’s first mass-market EV, the Leaf, in 2010.

However the Japanese automotive firm’s EV technique has since floundered. Nissan is among the few automotive producers within the US and not using a hybrid or plug-in providing.

“Nissan finds itself now with a really poor lineup of merchandise and with out apparent management in EVs, and that is the direct results of poor administration,” Andy Palmer, the previous chief working officer of Nissan, instructed BI in November.