Last year’s Honda-Nissan merger deal quickly fizzled in early 2025. Talks between the two companies ended last week as the pair clashed over the direction of the merger. An eventual tie-up between Nissan and Honda might not be entirely out of the question, though.
A new Financial Times report, citing “people with knowledge of the deliberations,” says Honda is open to resuming merger discussions with Nissan if its CEO, Makoto Uchida, steps down. And Honda might get its wish.
According to the report, Uchida is facing mounting pressure to depart from the company sooner rather than later. One person told the publication that Nissan’s board of directors is already informally discussing when Uchida should leave. Renault, which reportedly wants to sell a significant portion of its Nissan shares, is also upset at the botched deal. It owns 36 percent of the Japanese automaker.
Honda told FT that it would “not completely rule out the possibility of resuming the discussions” if the opportunity arose, but Nissan has other potential suitors that could spoil that possibility. The Taiwanese electronics maker Foxconn is also interested in cooperating with Nissan, but it’s not seeking a formal acquisition.
The company has also allegedly approached outside investors like tech companies and private equity firms to inject funding into the struggling automaker. Nissan is facing a financial crunch as global sales continue to fall, putting pressure on Uchida and the turnaround plan he had announced last March, which called for increasing sales by one million units.
Now that Nissan is going it alone, Uchida revised that roadmap. The company is preparing to cut 6,500 jobs after announcing last November that it would reduce its workforce by 9,000 employees. The company also has reiterated its decision to reduce global production capacity by 20 percent for the 2026 fiscal year.
Talks between Nissan and Honda began to break down after Honda changed course, proposing Nissan become a subsidiary in the merger. Honda reportedly wasn’t pleased with the speed at which Nissan was making changes to correct its financial troubles.
Source: Financial Times
