Honda / Nissan merger? It is revealed that the Japanese government is lobbying.

SMM: a few days ago, it is reported that the Japanese government is trying to promote the merger of Nissan and Honda. The main reason for the move is that the Japanese government is worried about the future of the country's auto industry.

According to people familiar with the matter, the proposal was first put forward at the end of 2019, and the Japanese government hopes to create a "national car champion", fearing that traditional car companies will lose their competitive edge as the automation and electrification of the auto industry accelerates. However, the merger plan did not proceed smoothly, and Nissan and Honda both rejected the proposal. Subsequently, the COVID-19 epidemic broke out, which also disrupted the government's process of promoting the merger plan.

Japan currently has eight major car brands, four of which (Mazda, Subaru, Suzuki and Daifa) have cross-shareholdings with Toyota, while Nissan has formed a tripartite alliance with France's Renault and Mitsubishi Motors. As a result, Honda has become the only car company in Japan that does not have a fixed alliance partner.

The alliance between Nissan and Renault has deteriorated since the arrest of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn in 2018, and the Japanese government is worried that the alliance will be dissolved at any time, affecting social and economic development, according to people familiar with the matter. Another person familiar with the matter said Honda rejected the merger plan mainly because of its unwillingness to intervene in the directly complex capital structures of Nissan and Renault. In addition, Nissan also opposes the merger plan because it is working to get the existing alliance back on track. Nissan and Honda declined to comment as of press time.

Comments:

Industry analysts believe that the main obstacle to the merger is Honda's unique engineering design, which makes it impossible for Nissan to share its parts and platforms with other partners, and once merged, the alliance will not be able to save more costs. In addition, although the two companies are neck-and-neck in car sales each year, their business models are not the same, and Honda makes far more money from its motorcycle business than from its car business, making it easier for Honda to cope with the downturn than Nissan. Honda is also the world's largest engine maker, with products ranging from private jets to lawnmowers and marine engines.

"2020 (second) China Automotive New Materials Application Summit Forum"

It was solemnly held in Shanghai from September 17 to 18.

During the reform period of the "four modernizations of the automobile", intelligent network connection, new energy, lightweight and intelligent manufacturing entered the field of the automobile industry, and the automobile era was reinterpreted. The surging changes require the industry to continue to integrate and innovate, and quickly promote the development rate of automobile enterprises. With the emergence of self-driving and intelligent cars, Internet companies, which are not active in the automotive field, have more opportunities to show their talents; the double points policy is becoming an important driving force for the development of China's new energy vehicle industry; in the face of environmental constraints, car companies speed up the application of advanced lightweight components and technologies to achieve vehicle weight loss. With the continuous promotion of the strategies of "Industrial 4.0" and "made in China 2025", intelligent manufacturing has become a new challenge of upgrading and transformation.

Under the guidance of the Shanghai Economic and Informatization Commission and the Shanghai Federation of Industrial economy, in order to accelerate the application of automobile lightweight and product lines, the Shanghai Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, together with Shanghai Automotive Engineering Society, Suzhou Die casting Technology Association and SMM, jointly held the "2020 (second) China Automotive New Materials Application Summit Forum". Jointly discuss material solutions, co-casting automobile industry chain green development closed loop, and strive to build an excellent communication and cooperation platform for the whole automobile industry chain, and lead the creation of advanced automobile industry clusters.

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