Honda Motor Co. Ltd and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to consider merging their businesses together, announced the automakers in a joint statement on Monday, December 23, 2024.
However, they are still at the start of the review process and haven’t yet decided on a business integration plan yet.
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“Creation of new mobility value by bringing together the resources including knowledge, talents, and technologies that Honda and Nissan have been developing over the long years is essential to overcome challenging environmental shifts that the auto industry is facing,” said Honda Director and Representative Executive Officer Toshihiro Mibe.
He added that the final decision will be out by the end of January 2025.
If the merger happens, both the automakers will have common and standardised vehicle platforms for each other.
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Their cars, though branded differently, will also share the same production lines for being manufactured.
They also announced that they would provide “new financial services” throughout the vehicle lifecycle, to customers of both organizations.
This comes after the companies announced in August this year that they had signed an MoU for jointly researching on technologies related to next-generation software-defined vehicles (SDVs).
The plan at the moment is to establish, through a joint share transfer, a joint holding company that will be the parent company of both companies.
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Both Nissan and Honda will be fully owned subsidiaries of the joint holding company and will operate separately, retaining their own unique identities.
The automakers also plan to list the new joint holding company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in August 2026.
“Shareholders of both companies will continue to be able to trade shares of the joint holding company issued during this share transfer on the TSE,” the automakers said.
