Can Japan’s Carmakers Survive China’s EV Threat?
Honda and Nissan are losing market share at an alarming rate. The collapse of their merger talks may make things worse.
The disintegration of a potential tie-up between Honda and Nissan may have made a bad situation worse for Japanese automakers. Even before their dramatic December news of merger talks, the companies had been losing market share at an alarming rate, especially in Southeast Asia where half of all passenger cars are sold.
It’s no coincidence their troubles come as Chinese automakers take the lead in electrification, with a once-obscure carmaker called BYD surpassing not only Tesla but some Japanese rivals as well. In the Bloomberg Originals mini-documentary Can Japan’s Carmakers Survive China’s EV Threat?, we unpack the reasons why legendary brands like Honda and Nissan have fallen from global dominance, and whether they can turn things around.