Japan seeks the support of Tesla to relaunch Nissan. The title Nissan Motor was splashed by 9.4% on Nikkei, reaching 458.80 yen, after the Financial Times He revealed an initiative led by Hiro Mizuno, a former member of the Tesla Board of Directors, with the support of the former premier Yoshihide Suga. The plan aims to involve the US giant of electric vehicles in a strategic investment for the Japanese car manufacturer in difficulty.
Because Tesla can be interested in Nissan
As emerged last December 2024, Honda He signed a memorandum of understanding to make an agreement with both Nissan and Mitsubishi, giving life to the third largest automotive group in the world.
However, in the following weeks the stop to the negotiation arrived, with Honda willing to negotiate only on condition that Nissan’s current CEO leaves his assignment. A complex situation, therefore, that pushed a group of Japanese entrepreneurs to suggest Tesla’s intervention.
According to FT, which cites anonymous sources, the group believes that Tesla can be interested in acquiring Nissan plants in the United States, thus becoming the long -awaited strategic technological partner.
The initiative was born from the possibility that Tesla acquires the Nissan factories in the United States, thus strengthening national production in line with Donald Trump’s policies.
A Tesla entrance, underlines the Financial Timeswould remove the interest of Foxconn, The Taiwanese giant of electronics who in recent months has probed Renault to buy part of his share in Nissan.
Meanwhile, Nissan started an emergency renovation plan in November, which provides for the cut of 9 thousand jobs and a 20% reduction in global production capacity.
In the United States, the Japanese company has two plants in Tennessee and Mississippi with an annual capacity of about 1 million vehicles, but the production of 2024 stopped at 525 thousand units. Last week a shift cut was also announced in the two American factories.
And Nissan flies to the stock exchange (but Moody’s considers the title as a garbage)
After the publication of the report, Nissan’s shares recorded an increase of 9.6%. An increase that does not matter to Moody’swho downgraded the non -guaranteed rating of the Baa3 company to Ba1, bringing it to junk category (garbage), keeping the negative outlook.
According to the agency, the downgrading “reflects the deterioration and expectation of a persistent weakness in the credit profile of Nissan, in particular in its free cash flow, which will be negative in the tax exercise 2024 due to a drop in profits . In addition, the EBIT margin of the automotive business is expected to remain negative until 2025 “.
Moody’s also highlighted the risks related to the implementation of renovation planwhich provides for costs for 400 billion yen by the end of the tax year 2026, global commercial policies and the renewal of a range of obsolete products.
No comments from the interested parties
In recent weeks Nissan has been looking for a strategic partner in the technological sector and some members of the Board of Directors have suggested Tesla and Apple as ideal objectives.
Last week, Nissan and Honda interrupted negotiations for the creation of an automotive alliance of the value of 60 billion dollars. Nissan has chosen not to comment on the news, while Tesla, Apple and the offices of Yoshihide Suga did not respond to requests for comment.
Suga, who resigned as a prime minister in 2021, does not currently hold any official position in the government, but continues to be a member of the low chamber of Japan, representing a district in the prefecture of Kanagawa, a historic headquarters of Nissan.
