- Former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has called the brand’s potential merger with Honda a “desperate move.”
- The two automakers are reportedly in talks as Nissan struggles to navigate what it openly calls “emergency mode.”
- Ghosn appears to have insider knowledge of what’s truly unfolding behind the scenes at Nissan.
Nissan is in dire straits right now, and things aren’t looking up. The CEO has declared that the automaker is in “emergency mode,” signaling a company-wide crisis. In response, Nissan plans to slash 9,000 jobs, postpone upcoming products, and scramble to find a new financial backer to stabilize its operations. As if that weren’t enough, the company appears to be exploring a merger with Honda.
Adding another layer to the story, former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn—yes, the guy who staged a Hollywood-worthy escape from Japan in a box back in 2019 and is now living in self-exile in Lebanon—has weighed in. According to him, this situation spells big trouble for Nissan, and apparently, Honda isn’t exactly champing at the bit to get involved.
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“It’s a desperate move,” Ghosn said Friday on Bloomberg Television. “It’s not a pragmatic deal because frankly, the synergies between the two companies are difficult to find. There is practically no complementary [relationship] between the two companies. They are in the same markets. They are [in on] the same products. The brands are very very similar.”
“So in a certain way from one side, Nissan is a desperate move to try to find the future,” Ghosn continued. “And from the other side, Honda, which if I understand well, they were not very excited about this move but, you know, you have to count with METI In Japan.”
What he’s referring to is the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. Essentially, Ghosn believes that the METI is pressuring Honda to do this deal since it’ll ultimately keep one of Japan’s biggest brands alive. In fact, he went on record to say that even more succinctly.
“Having lived in Japan for so many years I understand how influential the METI can be,” explained Ghosn. “In my opinion, there is no industrial logic to it, but there is a moment when you have to choose between performance and control. Obviously, if you can have both, it’s better. But there are moments when you have to choose, and without any doubt, with METI and everything I know from it, they prefer control over performance. So they pushed Honda into the deal, without any doubt.”
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While it would be easy to see Ghosn’s words as little more than an ousted and disgraced CEO speaking bitterly about his former employer, he’s proven to have at least some insight into this whole situation. Back in August, he specifically said that a deal between Nissan, Honda, and Mitsubishi was a “disguised takeover” by Honda of the other two. While there’s no smoke around the idea of Honda taking over Mitsubishi, clearly, this deal involving Nissan makes Ghosn look a tad bit like Nostradamus.
Still, these two brands are in for some major work if they merge. “You need to understand that Honda is an engineering organization, it’s very strong at engineering. And Nissan is very proud of its own engineering. So the battle here is to try to decide what technologies are going to be adopted by the new company—if it’s a merger—or by the new alliance. I can tell you it is going to be very tough,” says Ghosn.
