Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to join forces and form the world’s third-largest automaker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil…
Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to join forces and form the world’s third-largest automaker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels.
Alternative take: Honda fucked up by not going the EV route, now they're behind. Nissan built a fuckton of Leafs and probably has at least some decent in-house EV expertise built up. Best case scenario you get good Honda EVs.
It's probably not going to be the best case scenario, though.
Things aren't always black and white. It could turn out to be an okay intermediate. I'm not too mad about the loss of competition here because there are quite a few new EV makers that are attempting to succeed in the market.
Fun Fact. 1st Gen Nissan Leaf’s have such bad battery capacity that they have no resale value but they are very popular in southeast Alaska where gas prices are high and there really isn’t anywhere to go (they are all islands) so a 60 mile range isn’t a handicap.
The merger isn't supposed to help consumers. It's to help businesses that are incapable of keeping up and need support. The Japanese government has a history of merging companies together to ensure that they stay competitive. MITI did it in the 70s to Japanese technology companies like Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, etc. most of those are still around today and even leading the industry.
Are you worried that this is like when Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas but the MD businessmen shoved out the engineers who ran Boeing?
As an aside I didn’t love my Honda but it didn’t require an engine replacement out of warranty like my Nissan did. I appreciated that Nissan did the right thing but it was concerning to need a new engine due to a manufacturing defect.
We're just going to have to spend the next 20 years researching each model to figure out whether it was made by nissan guys in nissan plants or honda guys in honda plants. It will probably realistically be functionally separated for a long time. Hopefully, everything will settle closer to honda quality.
Thing is I can't think of an actual "luxury" car on the American market short of Rolls Royce. Because everyone makes "luxury sports." Like my dad's Toyota Avalon that has way more horsepower than a front wheel drive full size sedan deserves.
Give me a modern '78 El Dorado land yacht with quilted leather pillow seats that drives like a cumulus cloud across the summer sky. I like Rolls' approach to horsepower: "Sufficient." It has plenty of power to deliver Sir to his destination in extreme comfort and quiet.