Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida has resigned. In typical Japanese fashion Uchida, who took the reins in 2020 after the Carlos Ghosn scandal, has fallen on his sword, likely to give the Honda merger a second chance. Merger talks between Honda and Nissan fell through last month, and many thought that was the end for Nissan. With no other Japanese carmakers willing to step up it seemed Nissan was doomed to become a subsidiary of a tech company. Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said that he’d give the talks another shot if Uchida was out of the picture, and that’s exactly what happened.
Honda and Nissan had signed a memorandum of understanding to merge in December 2024 because the latter, by some estimates, had as little as one year of solvency left at the time. However, in mid-February the dialogue flamed out spectacularly and the MOU was dissolved. It’s not typical for dirt to fly out in the open when it comes to Japanese companies, but with the number of people involved watching these two high-profile brands, leaks were inevitable. Insiders said Honda did not see the companies coming together as equals, but Nissan refused to be a Honda subsidiary.
With the negotiations collapsed, Nissan had nowhere to turn. Smartphone maker Foxconn was floated as the most promising partner. A former prime minister who sits on the board of Tesla suggested an alliance with the EV company, but Elon Musk rejected the idea. Now, a month later, according to several news sources Uchida was pressured to leave because of the failed negotiations with Honda.
Nissan has named Chief Planning Officer Ivan Espinosa, who joined Nissan’s Mexico operations in 2003, as its new CEO. Espinosa. “Making a fresh start will be in the best interests of Nissan,” said Uchida and called Espinosa “a real car guy.”
“I sincerely believe that Nissan has so much more potential than what we are seeing today,” Espinosa said as he took the top seat. Nissan has indicated that it would return to the table with Honda, but under the condition that Nissan is not a full subsidiary.
As we have said before, Japan holds Nissan in special regard. There’s too much national pride and love for Nissan to let it be bought out by a foreign tech company. Despite the very public and final-seeming dissolution of the merger talks there was always going to be a way out or, rather, a way back in to the negotiations. Uchida had to take the hit. We don’t know what form the merged company will take, but the Nissan name, with its long history of motorsports victories and beloved pop culture impressions, will not simply vanish.
I may just say that.
I think there would have been the time for Renault, which acquired Nissan in 1999, to have its (Renault’s) shares being taken over by Toyota – Nissan’s fellow compatriot – especially with the fact that Toyota also has an already-ongoing partnership with Stellantis – formerly PSA Peugeot Citroen and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) – that’s exclusive to the European market. (As its also given that both Renault and Stellantis are partially owned by the French government and Toyota has a manufacturing facility in France too just as both Toyota and Nissan have factories in neighboring UK.)
Also, have Toyota to acquire shares in Renault and Stellantis? Then each of those car manufacturers would just put Nissan (also Mitsubishi Motors and even Honda) out of business like how General Motors (GM) replaced the Daewoo brand with the Chevrolet marque – which even led to the Daewoo name’s discontinuation in 2011, but while it may benefit Jeep – which has been considered as a crown jewel by other carmakers having interest on that nameplate since Renault partnered with AMC Motors in 1979 – the idea of Nissan (formerly Datsun) being put into bankruptcy by Toyota, the Renault Group and Stellantis NV would also benefit Ford (Jeep’s fellow compatriot) since the Blue Oval currently does not even have models to match that of the Yaris / Yaris Cross, Clio / Captur, 208 / 2008, Avenger (the Jeep model) etc not since the Fiesta / EcoSport and Focus were already discontinued. (Nevermind about Toyota being the only Japanese car manufacturer that’s currently competing in the World Rally Championship aka WRC.)
Imagine Nissan and Mitsubishi being completely put into liquidation by Toyota, Renault and Stellantis in favor of Ford to say, then replacing Nissan with the Blue Oval would be like Ford returning to Japan and ever going back to the time when Ford sold cars on Japanese soil alongside Mazda… (Remember the Maverick, Corsair and Mercury Villager? These were Fords that were just essentially rebadged Nissans, but hey, the Fiesta and Focus sold more elsewhere overseas than their Mazda counterparts and as well as Nissan equivalents too.)
Saving Nissan is politics not business. Honda did not wake up one morning and say “Hey Nissan looks like a good merger”. If the company was worth saving, a lot of other players would be stepping up to make offers. It is not which is why there are none. The government of Japan wants the Honda-Nissan merger to happen. It would be the equivalent of Ford going out of business and no one wanting to buy them. Politics would step in at some point and make a Ford-GM merger happen. The world automotive market is suffering from severe over capacity and too many brands. Something has to give and Nissan is looking like the most likely one to fall at present.
Ding ding ding, you are correct!
If only the Australian government had had the same patriotic initiative we would still have our car industry, which was lost over accusations against GM primarily over $150,000,000 in government subsidies “going missing”. Cigarette tax now nets $120,000,000 a day??
i thought the new Z could be the last Z with a gas engine and manual transmission. But i was hoping it would not be because they are folding, but the forced push to electric. Tough economic times, I fear what happens. They need Honda. Z guy since i was a kid