Nissan Reportedly Approaching Tesla After Failing with Honda

KatadataOTO – After a failed merger with Honda, rumors are circulating that Nissan will approach Tesla. Even a number of state officials are reportedly going to be involved to support this move.

Reported by Reuters, a Tesla investment could be a strategic move because the electric car manufacturer could acquire Nissan's factory in the United States. This could help them to 

However, some analysts doubt Tesla's interest in acquiring factories in the US. This is because their needs are different from the production facilities of conventional vehicles.

Moreover, their production capacity is actually already quite large and last year they actually experienced a decrease in production. Therefore, acquiring a factory is not something important for them.

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“One of Tesla's weapons is that its factories have been designed and optimized to produce their vehicles,” said Matt Britzman, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, as reported by Reuters (24/02).

Meanwhile, Foxconn, the Taiwanese technology company previously mentioned to be collaborating with Nissan, seems to be changing course. This is because they are now reportedly approaching Honda to develop electric cars.

It was previously reported that Nissan was about to merge with Honda, but the deal was eventually canceled.

This is because Honda proposed a structural change from the formation of a joint holding company and to appoint the majority of directors and the CEO based on a share transfer.

Honda revealed that this description was already conveyed in the Memorandum of Understanding. Thus, in the structure, they would become the parent company and Nissan the subsidiary.

However, Nissan wanted them to form a joint holding company where each party would have an equal say.

This disagreement led both companies to decide to stop the discussions and terminate the Memorandum of Understanding.

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The situation is certainly becoming more unfavorable for Nissan as they are currently in a poor financial condition. The Japanese manufacturer has even laid off thousands of its employees and postponed launching new products to keep the company running. 

If this situation continues for a long time, it is not impossible that the company could face bankruptcy in the future.