Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reported on Saturday that Honda and Nissan are considering joint production of vehicles in their factories as part of their plan to consolidate relations and possibly merge.
Kyodo said, without mentioning the source of the information, that Honda will consider supplying hybrid vehicles to Nissan as part of the plan.
The potential merger between Honda, the second largest car company in Japan, and Nissan, the third largest company in the country, could lead to the creation of the third largest car group in the world in terms of vehicle sales after Toyota and Volkswagen, with a production of up to 7.4 million vehicles annually.
A Honda spokesman said when asked about the report, today, Saturday, “As we announced in March and August, our company, Nissan, and Mitsubishi Motors are in the process of unifying our capabilities and exploring potential forms of cooperation, but nothing has been determined yet.”
Nissan declined to comment, as the company is the largest shareholder in Mitsubishi Motors.
Kyodo said that Honda could use Nissan’s car factory in Britain, as it currently only has engine and motorcycle factories in Europe.
This step comes amid concerns about the expected policies of US President-elect Donald Trump, which may shake the manufacturing sector, according to the Kyodo report.
Last March, the two companies agreed on a strategic partnership to cooperate in developing electric vehicles, but Nissan faced financial and strategic problems in the past few months that prompted it to strengthen cooperation with its major competitor, Honda.
