Honda is in talks to merge with or purchase Nissan. I can’t figure out the rationale. In the old days maybe you’d say that it takes a long time to build factories, establish dealer networks, etc. and, therefore, Nissan’s assets might be valuable. But Tesla and BYD started from nothing and quickly built factories, company-owned stores (better than dealers), engineering, and everything else necessary for being in the car business. In any case, Honda doesn’t have to start from scratch in the car business because it is already well-established in the car business. If Nissan has some good people, Honda could try to hire them away and set them up within their proven-to-be-profitable structure.
What do we see below that Honda doesn’t make or couldn’t make?
The $120,000+ Nissan GT-R is kind of fun, but only about 1,000 are built each year.
More generally, given what Tesla and BYD have accomplished why would a car company ever want to buy another car company?
Nissan Armada? And also Nissan markets, Nissan has market penetration where Honda is not very popular. Could make sense to consolidate major internal combustion engine car makers under same roof.
The Japanese government didn’t want Renault to take over Nissan, despite their saving it, and pushed Carlos Ghosn out when they felt they no longer needed him, mistakenly as it turned out as Nissan resumed tanking.
The Japanese government leaned on Honda to do this rescue/merger, but Honda realizes Nissan’s current management must be eradicated root and branch, and dispensed with the polite fiction this was a merger of equals.