mobile-menu-icon
Ford Authority

Ford Rivals Honda And Nissan May Not Merge After All

Ford rival Nissan has been struggling mightily as of late, announcing that it planned on laying off 9,000 workers, slashing its production output by 20 percent, and canceling certain models in response to sinking sales and profit. At the same time, Nissan began engaging in talks with another Ford rival – Honda – back in late December, with the expectations that the two companies would set up a joint holding company and explore a merger that – if agreed to and approved – would become the world’s third-largest automaker. Now, however, it seems as if that merger may not happen, after all.

A photo showing the exterior of the 2025 Nissan Murano liftgate badge.

According to a new report from Reuters, Nissan is reportedly set to call off merger talks with Honda due to “growing differences” between the two companies. Honda reportedly wanted Nissan to become a subsidiary rather than more of an outright partner in this process, a notion that Nissan reportedly “balked” at, given the fact that such a move wasn’t part of the original plan. Regardless, both automakers released statements indicating that no decision has been made as of yet, and that plans were expected to be finalized by mid-February.

According to this same report, Honda – which is roughly five times larger than Nissan – is becoming increasingly worried about its ability to right the finical ship, problems that could be complicated by potential tariffs imposed by the U.S. “The news saying that Nissan did not want to be a Honda subsidiary appears to highlight that control was a contentious issue,” said Christopher Richter, Japan autos analyst at brokerage CLSA. “Without being able to have control, Honda appears to be walking away.”

A front three quarters view of the Honda Prelude Concept.

Nissan has been mired in financial difficulties for some time now, which is precisely why the automaker plans to trim thousands of jobs and reduce its costs by $2.6 billion over the coming years. Aside from fixing that particular problem, the merger between Honda and Nissan was also aimed at better competing with emerging Chinese automakers that are quickly gaining market share across the globe.

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.

Subscribe to Ford Authority

For around-the-clock Ford news coverage

We'll send you one email per day with the latest Ford updates. It's totally free.

Comments

  1. We are in an era with too many automotive manufacturers. Like we saw 100 years ago, we are going to see consolidation, and many companies will go out of business (several EV companies already have). Sorry, Nissan, your hour is not far off.

    Reply
  2. Reminds me of the Daimler and Chrysler “merger of equals” as described by Jürgen Schrempp, CEO of Daimler Benz.

    Soon after the two companies were merged Jürgen Schrempp said it was always in his plan to have Daimler take over Chrysler. After Daimler raped and pillaged Chrysler for a while they left them for dead with a venture capital company Cerberus (the 3 headed hound of Hades). Then what was left of Chrysler got merged and merged again into Stellantis, now having only a minivan in it’s line-up.

    It would have been much better for Chrysler to have gone out fighting to the death. Something that Nissan my be considering.

    Reply
    1. Banzai!

      Reply
  3. Who Cares??? In the Earlier 1960 Day’s when the BIG 3 Were Competing head to head. GM Was told by the Lovely Government to Stop or Slow Down there production because they had over 50% of the Market Share of Automobile Sales… Hence the STRIKE in 1965!!! Bo Hoooo.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Cancel