this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Mergers should be illegal.

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[–] [email protected] 79 points 20 hours ago (17 children)

This is a panic move because the Japanese car industry wasted a whole lot of time and money on hydrogen instead of EVs

[–] [email protected] 34 points 20 hours ago (5 children)

I remember when Physics Girl took Shell money to promote hydrogen powered cars.

It was very suspicious that they never talked about how the hydrogen was produced.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 19 hours ago

And certainly never about the price of hydrogen. It's either running the car on fossil fuels with extra steps, or on solar and wind electricity with extra steps. Extra steps cost a lot.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 hours ago

And they still are. Toyota and Honda in particular have been spent billions on FUD and harebrained hydrogen projects and then wondering why China is eating their lunch. Meanwhile the doors are closing for non-EV manufacturers in markets which are going all electric coming up to 2030. Japan's auto industry will probably survive in some form but there could be a lot of casualties.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 17 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 45 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

What this really is, is the first major OEM casualty from the EV transition.

Nissan was in deep deep trouble. This merger is a lifeline, they needed it to survive.

[–] Montagge 27 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Probably should have put some fans on the battery for the Leaf lol

[–] [email protected] 17 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

If they expanded their lineup to be based on the Leaf EV instead of just leaving it a lil econobox and focusing on their god aweful CVT they may have had been a great early EV competitor. Instead, ownership just kept sucking and sucking the company dry

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[–] [email protected] 109 points 1 day ago (28 children)

Honda is known for quality, and every old Nissan I see falls apart. I hope this doesn’t tank the quality of Honda.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Quality of basically every automaker has tanked post COVID, including Honda. And the prices are highway robbery too, its all a race to the bottom now.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago

Re prices.

This is what is pissing me off - I'm subsidizing car manufacturers by not being able to buy cheap Chinese cars, yet the assholes focus on expensive trucks I don't need. If I'm socializing their losses - I don't want them building cyber trucks, I want cheap affordable vehicles.

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[–] [email protected] 88 points 23 hours ago (12 children)

This is a bad idea. As someone comes from a “Honda family”, I drive a Honda because I don’t want a Nissan.

This feels like the quality of Hondas get to drop while the cost of Nissans get to jump. I fail to see how this benefits anyone.

[–] [email protected] 89 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 19 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 22 hours ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 21 hours ago

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.

Again, this isn't to help any consumers.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 16 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 21 points 20 hours ago (6 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 18 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Just bring back Datsun. Ok maybe compromise and make it Hotsun.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 19 hours ago

Acfiniti? Infinura?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 18 hours ago (4 children)

Nissan's failures: Trash CVT, Toyota prices, failed to expand their e-Power (series) Hybrid, missed the small pick-up truck in the USA, ignored the sub $20k EV and they allowed shitty Tesla to grab the EV market. It means Mitsubishi will end up with Honda and Nissan.

No word from Renault?

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

Expect less competition and higher prices

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 21 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 22 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Whelp, Renault is getting super fucked. Bailing out Nissan was a mistake.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 17 hours ago (5 children)

Is it then called Hondan or Nissa?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

It’s crazy how much of the car market has already been consolidated. They just keep putting out cars with other makes, even if they are owned by the same company. Hyundai and Kia are a perfect example.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 16 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 16 hours ago

HONDANISSAN

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

This is just too soon. I’m still shook up over losing Datsun in the 80s.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago

Honsan? Nisda?

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