Nissan, Honda potential merger announced as Mitsubishi evaluates whether to join

The three Japanese companies signed a memorandum of understanding for business integration

Photo by: Mitsubishi

By: Eleonora Lilli

Dec 23, 2024 at 8:30am ET

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Honda and Nissan plan to merge into a holding company (headed by Honda) by the summer of 2026, and Mitsubishi is considering joining it. The news has been rumoured in past weeks and yesterday it was made official by a joint press release in which the companies announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the possibility of including Mitsubishi in the business integration.

The strategic partnership, we recall, is focused on intelligence and electrification and serves to strengthen the historic Japanese carmakers, which in the current industrial situation have lost ground and must compete with increasingly fierce competition. Now the goal of Mitsubishi Motors is to reach a final agreement on participation or involvement in the business integration of Nissan and Honda by the end of January 2025.

Honda and Nissan, on the other hand, aim to finalise an agreement by June 2025 and form the holding company by August 2026, expecting to take the new entity public at that time, pending investor approval at the extraordinary shareholders' meetings scheduled for April 2026.

A common goal

The three companies are striving to find a profitable arrangement for all three with a view to becoming global auto industry leaders, as also stated by Honda's director and executive representative, Toshihiro Mibe:

"In this time of change in the automotive industry, which is said to happen once every 100 years, we hope that Mitsubishi Motors' participation in Nissan and Honda's business integration discussions will lead to further social change and that we will be able to become a leading company in creating new value in mobility through business integration."

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Nissan Director, President, CEO and Executive Representative, Makoto Uchida, reiterated that the companies are looking to work together to a wide range of industries. "We anticipate that if this integration materialises, we will be able to offer even greater value to a broader customer base," he commented.

Finally, Director, Executive Representative and President and CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, Takao Kato, reiterated the joint commitment to "making the most of each company's strengths".