The Economist – Mexico City
A mini squeezerStro and a former member of the Council Tesla administration plan to approach Elon Musk to support the automation manufacturer in Nissan Hurry.
A high -level Japanese group whose members is a Japanese minister has prepared plans for Tesla, Elon Musk, to invest In the automobile manufacturer in Nissan difficulties, after the failure of their fusion conversations with Honda.
The new proposal, led by Hiro Mizuno, Old member of the Tesla Council has the support of the former Minister Yoshihide Suga and his former assistant Hiroto Izumi.
The group is confident that Tesla becomes a strategic investor, since they believe that the largest manufacturer of pure electric vehicles in the world is interested in acquiring Nissan factories In the United States, which would help him boost national manufacturing in response to Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
The plan to approach Tesla occurs after the failure of the fusion proposal of 58,000 million dollars of Nissan with Honda, which has caused fears that the third largest manufacturer Japan cars can fall into potentially hostile foreign hands, such as the Taiwanese mounts of the iPhone Foxconn, activists and risk capital groups.
The conversations with Honda originally began after Foxconn got in touch last year with Renault, partner of Nissan, to buy part of the participation of the French company in the Japanese car manufacturer. After the rupture of the negotiations this Month, Foxconn confirmed his interest in acquiring Nissan actions to expand his electric vehicle manufacturing business.
Suga, who left Prime Minister in 2021, It is still an active figure in Japanese politics and continues to be a member of the lower house of Japan.
The proposal contemplates an investor consortium led by Tesla, but also includes the Possibility of a minority investment by Foxconn to avoid a total acquisition by the Apple provider.
Nissan’s shares rose 11.5% in the Tokyo Stock Exchange after Financial Times reported the plans, and closed with a 9.5% rise. Musk seemed to subtract importance in his interest in acquiring Nissan factories.
In recent weeks, Nissan had begun to look for a strategic partner in the technological sector and some members of the Board of Directors suggested to Tesla and Apple. In November, Nissan launched an emergency restructuring plan that included the suppression of 9,000 positions of work when registering quarterly losses. On Friday, Moody’s reduced Nissan’s credit rating to the junk bonus category.
Historically, Tesla has not invested in automobile companies and Musk is reoring the Company approach and spending its US $ 36,000 million in cash towards autonomous driving vehicles and robotics. But it also wants to increase production in the United States to compensate for the impact of Trump tariffs. The group rides all its vehicles that it sells in the country, but obtains some of its components from Mexico and other parts of the world.
Nissan has two assembly factories in Tennessee and Mississippi with a combined annual capacity of around 1 million vehicles, but only produced 525,000 units there in 2024. As part of its restructuring, the company has announced plans to reduce production capacity in 20% worldwide to deal with sales fall. Last week he said he planned to cut shifts in the two American factories.
It is possible that Nissan does not easily accept The sale of American factories to an opponent, since the national market is a key growth area for its benefits.
Since Foxconn’s interest in Nissan came to light in recent months, officials of the Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Industry of Japan have been very concerned about the political and national security implications that would lead to, because it is considered that Foxconn is too close to China.
However, the blockage of the operation would be difficult to justify, since Japan has welcomed significant investments in semiconductors from Taiwan and previously allowed Renault to acquire a participation in Nissan and that Foxconn bought Sharp. After one Restructuring of its alliance in 2023, Renault wants to sell much of the 36% that it still has in the Japanese group with a high premium.
