Officials from Honda and Nissan have yet to publicly confirm or deny the alleged merger talks that were reported last week. But their silence has done little to quell the chatter and speculation of what the automaker alliance would look like. One of those educated guesses is building new products at each other’s already-established manufacturing plants.
A source told Kyodo News that the automakers “have positioned improving production efficiency as an urgent issue.” One example is that in Europe, the Honda plants only build motorcycles and engines. A merger would allow Honda to utilize Nissan’s vehicle production facility located in Britain.
From a productivity standpoint, of course, this is smart business sense. You don’t need to build new manufacturing facilities just because you have a new name (HonSan? SanDa? Honda-Nissan & Mitsu? Last one sounds like a law firm). However, retooling and other related restructuring will still cost some money.
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