NISSAN is on the hunt for a new partner after talks with Honda fell through.
In December last year, the Japanese car manufacturers discussed a possible “mega-merger” but negotiations have been dropped.
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The original idea was to combine forces, creating the third-largest global carmaker in sales volumes after Toyota and Volkswagen.
However, according to Fleetworld, Honda was looking to change the conditions and make Nissan and subsidiary.
Neither of the car giants have made an announcement, but Honda said it would “establish a direction and make an announcement around mid-February”.
Industry insiders have revealed that Nissan is open to mergers with other automotive or technology firms.
One of the potential companies is Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Technology Group.
The company has reportedly already approached Nissan in December before asking Renault to sell its 35 stake in the company.
Nissan announced its plans for a restructure – confirming three of its global factories will shut as part of a £2billion saving initiative.
The Sun has approached Nissan for comment.
It comes as the company is said to be facing a make-or-break 12 months and reportedly could go under without much-needed financial support.
And Nissan has not ruled out whether its only remaining European facility, based in Sunderland, will be included in the cuts.
A spokesperson for Nissan Europe said nothing has been specified on closures other than Thailand, Autocar reports.
They added: “Given the latest performance of our company and the changing environment it is essential we explore options without any taboo and carry out a deeper structural reform.”
Sunderland started out building Bluebird in 1986 and has now topped 11 million cars.
One in three UK-built cars is made in the North East — more than 400,000 a year — with a new Qashqai born every two minutes.
Qashqai is considered the crown jewel. The do-it-all SUV continues to set records as the fastest car to one, two, three and four million units.
Line them up end to end and they would stretch from Sunderland to Mount Fuji.
In Sunderland’s favour is the fact that Nissan – along with the UK government – has poured £2bn into the facility in recent years order to build new electric models including the upcoming new Leaf.
Nissan’s battery partner Envision AESC is also finalising construction of a new cell plant on the site.
However, Europe was by far the company’s worst performing region financially in the nine months to the end of December.
With losses equivalent to a shocking £354 million.
Meanwhile production rates at the Sunderland plant dropped by a whopping 33 per cent in the three months ending December.
Nissan has already shut its Barcelona factory in an effort to mitigate its plummeting losses – making Sunderland the last European facility.
Should the Sunderland plant close, 6000 jobs would be lost.
The manufacturer already planned to cut 9,000 employees and 20 per cent of global capacity.
Meaning that closure would represent almost all the 6500 roles Nissan is seeking to axe globally from both vehicle and engine production facilities, between now and 30 March 2027.
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