Honda and Nissan are merging. Will the new company be called Hellantis?

Photo above - "You can't stop what's coming". Former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn appears to contemplate competition from cheap Chinese EVs.

Honda and Nissan - Japan’s 2nd and 3rd largest automakers are merging. To fend off the Chinese? No wait, that’s wrong. Honda and Nissan are NOT the 2nd and 3rd largest brands. Those would be “Suzuki” and “Daihatsu”. (Toyota is still #1). Honda and Nissan are a lap back, at 4th and 5th place. Yeah that blew my mind too. Suzuki actually sold the worlds worst imitation Jeep in America for a year or two, before the company retreated in shame. Kei cars (about the size of a lawn tractor) are in demand only in Tokyo, where there’s no place to park, and you can only go 3 mph getting there.

After Honda takes over Nissan, they may (briefly) be number two. Until Toyota takes over Subaru. A couple of Subaru models are already made with 90% Toyota parts. Don't laugh. This WILL happen.

My first take on the Honda/Nissan merger was probably wrong. I figured: “Honda will use idle Nissan assembly lines to build Civics and CRVs, rather than build new factories from scratch”. This seemed logical, since Nissan sales are down 5%. Nissan dealers have 3 months unsold inventory on their lots. Lots of idle assembly lines. Nissan's former CEO – Carlos Ghosn – was arrested in Japan for fraud, but escaped by hiding in a piano crate. Hey, wasn’t this the plotline of a Shogun TV show episode?

The idea that Honda actually needs Nissan’s factories deserves a rethink. The emerging theory is that Chinese automakers are also vying to control Nissan's idle assembly lines. If Honda gets there first, Japan will be safe-ish from an invasion of affordable tiny EVs. And everyone there will continue to drive tiny Daihatsu's with gas powered lawn mower engines? Uh-huh . . .

The problem isn’t factory space. It’s assembly cost and battery tech. Japan’s autoworkers are paid like Germans and UAW guys now. That’s why a “good” Accord or Camry costs north of $40,000. And why most EVs have $hitty range, can't be parked indoors, and take too long to recharge. China has apparently licked these problems with Mongolian slave labor and some weird battery breakthrough. Tesla and GM . . . where’s your breakthrough? You’ve been promising this for more than a decade. General Motors recently decided to stop calling its batteries “Ultium”, because they are neither ultimate nor different in any way from Tesla’s legacy batteries.

What does most of the word drive today? Whatever you guessed, you’re wrong. "Scooters" is the correct answer. And EV scooters are going to obliterate gas powered motorbikes so fast it will make the world tilt on its axis. The nations that ride the most ICE scooters today are going to build the most EV ones. India, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia. Setting up a scooter factory probably costs around 5% of what an auto assembly line costs. And there’s far less casting and welding and painting involved. Riders will be overjoyed when they can wheel their scooters indoors at night and recharge.

So how well is “Hellantis” – the merger of Honda and Nissan – likely to do? Let’s look at the history of Stellantis. Formed by the merger of Fiat-Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Peugeot-Citroen, and a half dozen more brands you never see in the USA. Wait - what? Stellantis stock is down 50% this year? Whether there will be a full year profit is open to debate. Here Trump's America, Jeep dealers are in open rebellion. They are refusing to accept delivery of any more $100,000 Wranglers and Gladiators. Stellantis - as a whole -is only valued at $37 billion. For comparison, Toyota alone is worth an order of magnitude more - $260 Billion. Putting Fiat 4 bangers in lower rung Jeep Cherokees didn't turn out to be the brilliant move it seemed. And Fiat itself is reduced to offering only 1 car in America - the 500X. Fiat USED to have a bunch of stand-alone US dealers. Now if you want to buy a Fiat 500X you have to call around and see if a nearby CJD (Chrysler Jeep Dodge) dealer has one on the back lot. For real.

America had its heyday for automobiles in the 1950s. Then came 50 years of Toyota/Honda dominance. The world won’t stop turning if House-of-the-Dragon cars start appearing in volume. Even if those EVs show up on Nissan dealer lots.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

(full disclosure - this writer bought a 2025 Honda Civic Sport Touring Hybrid last month).

Nissan merging with Honda went from possible to likely

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