Honda-Nissan Merger: Can They Challenge Tesla and Other EV Giants?

Some time ago, we heard that Honda and Nissan were thinking about teaming up—maybe even becoming one company. Why? Well, Nissan hasn’t been doing too hot. They’ve been struggling and needed someone solid to back them up before things went south. That’s where Honda comes in, offering support so Nissan doesn’t go under. But Honda wasn’t just being nice—they had something to gain too. They’re interested in Nissan’s EV tech. See, Honda doesn’t really have a proper EV ready yet, and they’re looking to take on BYD’s growing dominance in the electric car game. They can’t do that alone, so teaming up with Nissan, who’s been in the EV world a bit longer, kind of makes sense.

The big issue, though, is that the EV market is already pretty much owned by two giants: Tesla and BYD. Trying to beat both of them? Honestly, it feels like a long shot. It’s going to take years, and buyers are still pretty skeptical about EVs from less popular brands. I mean, would you rush out to buy an EV from Nissan? Maybe... but it’s not exactly a game-changer.

From what I’ve seen, Honda and Nissan are still in talks about a possible merger. Nothing’s final yet. It could fall apart or go through, depending on what they agree on. So for now, it’s just a waiting game.

A quick Google search shows that they’re hoping to team up to take a bigger slice of the EV market—maybe even challenge the big players. But will it work? Personally, I’m not so sure. It feels risky, and there’s no guarantee they’ll pull it off.

Maybe their plan is to rely on sheer volume. If they merge, they’d become the third-largest carmaker in the world by sales. That’s a big deal, and they might think that scale gives them a shot at competing with Tesla and BYD. Plus, Honda and Nissan aren’t exactly new kids on the block—they’ve been building cars for decades, way before Tesla or BYD showed up. So from their point of view, it could work. But let’s be real: they’ve got a lot of catching up to do just to reach the kind of hype and popularity those two already have.

However, if the question is “Will it help them compete against bigger global electric vehicle makers?” then I think it is possible, especially if you think about the numbers. Honda or Nissan can certainly make EV cars quickly and sell them at a cheap price, especially if electrification is still being echoed. Honda itself has many dealers, and that will definitely help it.

But I have some thoughts, the most important one is that this is a step from Nissan so that they don’t collapse and as you know some time ago Nissan almost collapsed and was only inches from bankruptcy, maybe this is their desperate step to save the company by “surrendering” to the stronger Honda, Toyota doesn’t seem to want to because they already have several subsidiaries and for now the cooperation between Honda and Nissan is in EV which is still quite quiet and in some sense, fighting Tesla and BYD is quite easy because both are niche products, those who like Tesla are usually certain groups and BYD still can’t enter several developed countries, Nissan on the other hand has no problem walking there.

Maybe like this: Honda and Nissan sell cheap EVs produced by Nissan and eventually sold to the masses. People who don’t know Tesla or are still skeptical about BYD will buy it because, well, it’s Honda/Nissan; people know the brand, and by numbers they are more popular. Maybe Tesla is a hip car, but for the mass market it’s not something feasible. Honda/Nissan, on the other hand, is a common brand that many people already know, and people won’t have trouble understanding it; it’s a car they’ve known for a long time.

Let’s say they make an EV for USD 15,000 for the global market. I’m sure they will win, and their cars will sell because of their brand. Tesla decides to withdraw from the cheap car competition while BYD is still being thwarted by many countries because of China’s own cheating practices. Japanese brands have no problem, and I think they can sell cheap EVs easily even though the EV market is now slowing down. At least there is still a market for cheap EVs.

But it’s not an easy matter. Convincing people that the merger will produce quality cars is a difficult matter, especially with what Nissan has done these years. I mean, they are not known as a manufacturer of quality cars these days, so they have to piggyback on Honda to increase their popularity. Does that mean their collaboration will produce bad cars? Not really, but we also have to pay attention to what they will be like in the future; we can’t be sure that they can make quality and cheap cars.

The chances are that this merger will either be the biggest thing in history or fail spectacularly. Nissan has been known as a maker of lemon cars for too long, while Honda seems to be hesitant in the EV world, but let’s see how it goes.

Unfortunately, the deal fell through, so we won’t be seeing Honda and Nissan teaming up—at least not for now. Still, I think there’s a good chance they’ll collaborate on something in the future. They’ll obviously be working on something during the exploration period. Hopefully, more will come out of it—ideally another EV, and maybe one that’s a bit more interesting this time.