Foxconn circles Nissan as Honda deal collapses

Contract manufacturer Foxconn is said to be looking at investing in Japanese car maker Nissan as a proposed merger with Honda collapses.

Nissan and Honda are set to make an announcement later this week about the end of the deal, which came about when Nissan was proposed as a subsidiary of Honda. Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida met with Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe last week.

The deal, which included Mitsubishi, extends an existing agreement on software defined vehicles and would have created the world’s third largest car maker after Toyota and Volkswagen. In 2024 Nissan produced 3.1m passenger and commercial vehicles, down 8.4% on the previous year.

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The future of Nissan has implications for European car manufacturing as Renault is a key shareholder and there are significant cross-holdings.

Foxconn, the brand of Hon Hai Technology, is a major manufacturer of iPhones and other Apple products and has set up its own vehicle contract manufacturing business with a focus on the ADAS safety systems, electronic control units (ECUs) and software defined vehicle (SDV) architectures. However this has faced the same problems that vacuum cleaner maker Dyson faced with its electric car development in persuading brands to adopt its motor and vehicle technology. Apple has faced a similar problem with its car development. 

Nissan says it is open to new partners, including technology suppliers. Foxconn had approached the company about a deal back in December.

Honda already has a separate joint venture with Sony for the Afeela vehicle that is shipping in 025 and is more like the Foxconn contract manufacturing model.