CGTN Europe speaks to an independent automotive analyst Paul Nieuwenhuis.
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00:00Paul, welcome back. What does this merger, if it goes ahead, mean for the wider global car industry?
00:09Well, I mean, it would make another big carmaker, wouldn't it?
00:14We've seen a lot of consolidation over the last 20, 30 years, and this would be another one.
00:19And within Japan, there has historically been various waves of consolidation going back to the 1960s.
00:26Marriage doesn't always work out, does it? I mean, what would this merger between these two companies mean?
00:34I mean, would it be an easier road ahead? Is it guaranteed to make things easier?
00:41It's a difficult one. I mean, the Japanese do like a Japanese solution,
00:45and a lot of people in Japan have been unhappy with the Renault-Nissan link-up, which, of course, is still ongoing.
00:51So to that extent, it's, for the Japanese, perhaps a happier solution.
00:56But from what I know of the companies, they have quite a different company culture.
01:02Honda, traditionally, is a much younger company, more innovative, more creative, perhaps.
01:09Nissan, perhaps more conservative.
01:12But still, I mean, they're both global operators, as your expert mentioned, big in North America, which is useful.
01:20And both a bit struggling in China, perhaps.
01:23Within Europe, Nissan is much stronger than Honda. Honda has been a marginal player for a long time.
01:30How easy is it for legacy car companies like these two to reinvent themselves as EV competitors to Tesla and the Chinese manufacturers?
01:43Well, it's actually much more difficult than one may think, and this is why they're all struggling.
01:49Whole supply chains have to be changed.
01:52In some cases, business models.
01:54I mean, one of the advantages Tesla has is not just that it makes electric cars, but it has a completely novel business model,
02:01which involves also a charging network, for example.
02:05They sell solar panels.
02:07They sell large storage batteries and stuff like that.
02:11And that's a business model that no car manufacturer has traditionally operated with.
02:17And you feel that the legacy car makers haven't quite got their heads around that more integrated business model.
02:24Tesla also owns its own distribution network, its own dealers, as it were.
02:29And it's a big step then to both change the supply chain and then that aftermarket picture as well.
02:37So it's not easy.
02:39And another thing, I mean, as we have established, they have been caught out at the speed with which particularly the Chinese have operated and have changed.
02:48I mean, I guess you can you can keep on consolidating the car industry all you want.
02:53What's missing in many territories around the world is confidence, isn't it?
02:58And confidence remains at the heart of many of these crises, if we can call it that, in the global car industry.
03:07Yes, that's the problem.
03:09And it's also internal confidence within the industry.
03:12Both Honda and Nissan are very, very good technical car makers.
03:17I mean, they make excellent cars, reliable cars.
03:20They have the expertise.
03:21But again, you need to adopt new expertise to make electric vehicles.
03:24Again, both of them have a history of making electric vehicles.
03:28In fact, Nissan was the first to offer a mass production electric vehicle, the Deleaf.
03:34But that was under Carlos Ghosn, who you may remember, who sort of made a rapid exit a few years ago.
03:41And since then, the momentum within Nissan seems to have been lost a bit.
03:45They've been trying to consolidate, reconfigure themselves, reinvent themselves.
03:49And they have perhaps got their eye off the ball while focusing on their internal affairs.
03:55Paul, good to see you.
03:57I'm sure we'll return to this much more in the weeks and months ahead.
04:00But for the moment, thank you.
04:02Paul Newenhouse, the Automotive Industry Analyst.