Nissan's New CEO Open to Honda Partnership, Emphasizes Need for Alliances

Nissan Motor Co.'s new CEO said he is open to forming a partnership with Honda Motor Co., the Japanese rival his company attempted to merge with before talks broke down last month.

The auto industry's push into intelligent cars "is going to require a lot of work and a lot of investment that probably will need some partner," Ivan Espinosa, who starts his new job on April 1, said Wednesday. "I'm open to Honda or other partners, as long as these partners are helping us drive the vision of the business."

Nissan chose Espinosa, 46  to take over its top position at a critical juncture. The Japanese automaker is bracing investors for its third annual net loss in six years, sales are falling, and negotiations with Honda broke down last month under outgoing CEO Makoto Uchida.

The top priorities on Espinosa's to-do list will be to seek collaborations with companies that can assist Nissan in developing electric vehicles and refreshing the aging car lineup, which is costing the company share in major markets such as the United States and China.

A partnership with a traditional automaker could provide "some synergy" in terms of size, powertrain technology, and battery investment, Espinosa told reporters in Atsugi, near Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama.

"There's another option: who should you collaborate with to develop this intelligent component of the future. "There are some characteristics and competencies that traditional OEMs do not have," he stated, referring to original equipment manufacturers.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., a Taiwanese iPhone maker, has expressed an interest in purchasing Nissan's stake from French automaker Renault SA. Although Nissan is open to working with the company also known as Foxconn, it sees more value in collaborating with a major technology company, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month.

Espinosa, who has been chief planning officer since April of last year, said he regrets not accelerating product development sooner. "Changing a big company like Nissan is not an easy thing," he added.

He reiterated the Japanese automaker's plan to reduce the time it takes to get a car from development to production to as little as 30 months, down from 52 months.

Nissan plans to launch a number of new and refreshed models over the next two fiscal years to stem its financial decline.

In North America, a new version of the Sentra compact sedan will be introduced later this year, and the US and Canada will be the first markets to launch the new Leaf, which will have a port for plugging into Tesla Inc.'s Superchargers. Nissan also plans to begin producing an unspecified new EV at its Canton, Mississippi, plant in late fiscal year 2027.

Nissan will reintroduce the Micra, a small car that was discontinued in the United Kingdom in 2010, as a compact EV in Europe later this year. An electric version of the Juke compact SUV will be released in fiscal 2026.

In India, Nissan will launch a multipurpose vehicle in fiscal 2025 and a five-seat compact sports SUV in fiscal 2026, both of which will be manufactured in Chennai.

Espinosa, a mechanical engineer by training, has been in charge of the Nissan and Infiniti brands' global future product and service portfolios.

He identifies electrification, connectivity, and self-driving technologies as the top three challenges facing the auto industry, all of which Nissan has historically lagged in.

"A CEO is normally dealing with one or two major crises in his or her career," according to Espinosa. "I'll be dealing with four or five at the same time. I'm working on a turnaround. My company is experiencing a severe morale crisis. I have significant transformational work to complete."