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A Japanese group on a high level, to which a former prime minister belongs, has created plans for Elon Musks Tesla to invest in the fighting car manufacturer Nissan after the merger talks collapsed with Rival Honda.
The new proposal under the direction of the former Tesla board member Hiro Mizuno is supported by ex-premier Yoshihide Suga and his former adjutant Hiroto Izumi. Several board members of Nissan are aware of the initiative.
The group is hopeful that Tesla will become a strategic investor because it believes that the world’s largest pure electric vehicle manufacturer wants to acquire plants in the United States, according to the people. The factories would help strengthen domestic production in response to Donald Trump Tariff threats.
The plan to approach Tesla went away from Honda’s proposal of USD 58 billion, which feared that Japan’s third largest automobile manufacturer could get into potentially hostile external hands, with the Taiwanese iPhone assembler Foxconn, activists and private equity groups circulating.
The conversations with Honda were originally triggered after Foxconn had spoken out last year about the partner of Nissan Renault about the purchase of his participation in the Japanese automobile manufacturer. After the negotiation negotiations this month, Foxconn, confirmed His interest in the acquisition of Nissan shares as a means of expanding its EV production business.
Suga, who was depressed as Prime Minister in 2021, is still an active personality in Japanese politics and continues as a member of the Japanese lower house. He started his political career in Yokohama, where Nissan is based.
The proposal provides for a consortium of investors with Tesla as the greatest supporter, but also includes the possibility of a minority investment by Foxconn to prevent the Apple supplier from being taken over.
Nissan and Izumi rejected a comment. Mizuno, Suga, Tesla and Musk did not immediately answer a request for a comment.
In the past few weeks, Nissan has started his own search for a strategic partner in the Tech industry, with some board members Tesla and Apple proposed as ideal goals, two other people familiar with the matter. It started in November Emergency plan This included 9,000 job losses when it fell a quarterly loss.
With a market capitalization of around 1.1 TN, Tesla is one of the most valuable companies in the world. In the past, it has not invested in automotive companies, and Musk revolves around the company’s focus and the company’s expenses of USD 36 billion in cash for autonomous driving and robotics.
However, it also wants to increase production in the USA to compensate for the effects of US President Donald Trump threatened tariffs. The group assembles all vehicles sold in the USA, but evaluates some of its components from Mexico and other parts of the world.
Nissan has two assembly plants in Tennessee and Mississippi with a combined annual capacity of around 1 million vehicles, but only produced 525,000 units there in 2024. As part of its restructuring, the company has announced plans to reduce production capacity by 20 percent worldwide to address addressing itself to address sales. Last week it is said that it is planned to lower layers in the two US plants.
Nissan cannot easily sell the US plants to a rival, since the local market is an essential growth area for its sales and its profits.
Since Foxconn’s interest in Nissan has come to light in recent months, officials from the Japanese Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry were deeply concerned about the political effects and robustness.
Blocking the deal would have been difficult to justify, since Japan greeted large semiconductor investments from Taiwan and previously allowed Renault to take a share of Nissan and Foxconn, according to Japanese government officials to buy sharply.
After a restructuring of his alliance in 2023, Renault plans to sell a large part of the 36 percent that she still has with a high bonus in the Japanese group.
In an interview on Thursday, his managing director Luca de Meo said that every proposal that reflects the value of the 25-year partnership must reflect.
“I just hope that the Nissan Management team finds a way so that it works better than it has worked so far,” he said. “I give you the support you will need.”
Additional reporting by Stephen Morris in San Francisco, Joe Miller in Washington and Ian Johnston in Paris
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