Nissan Faces Uncertain Future as it Merges with Honda

The Nissan brand has completed its 2025 New Car Big Data series, with the final installment focusing on Nissan's prospects for the coming year.

Although the past year was largely quiet for Nissan, the December announcement that Nissan and Honda will be combining news shocked the world. The eventual combination could significantly impact the way the brands operate in multiple areas such as R&D, manufacturing, and sales.

Nissan's 2024 Review

Before looking at Nissan's sales figures, let us revisit the recent merger with Honda. On December 23st, Nissan, Honda, and Mitsubishi officially signed a peace treaty aiming to finalize their merge by June next year, in which time Nissan plans to establish its new parent company, with Honda holding an official role of CEO, while still continuing both franchises.

The companies are now planning to integrate various resources in R&D, production, and sales. This is driven primarily by improving competitiveness in EV cars. Second, it involves sharing technologies and patents, achieving platform unification, and further cost reductions. Nissan, along with Honda, plus Mitsubishi's worth more than $500 billion; once combined, the companies will become world's 3rd largest automobile manufacturers.

Sales figures for Nissan are not yet disclosed as it usually releases sales data towards the end of each month. However, according to data from 2024, Nissan reported relatively stable growth in most regions except Chinese markets where a very strong decline did occur (621713 vehicles sold compared to 11 months prior at -10.5%); also seen was that five-year period sees its annual China sales trending downward with more than half of the annual amount disappearing.

This year's data from Guangzhou's parent company, Dongfeng Automobile Group, reports total vehicle sales for all Dongfeng brands (including Nissan) to amount up to 656615 units; however different statistical methods being used on the two entities result in discrepancies between them.

At this time Nissan remains without disclosed targets regarding next year's expected production levels. Considering long terms trend of declining production numbers from this brand, certainly hoping for improvement in 2025 given past negative data.

Nissan plans for 2025

The upcoming electric SUV N7 of Dongfeng Automobile Group is going to enter formal sales markets early May. This is one new vehicle based on the advanced automotive technology set by Dongfeng Group in preparation for next-generation automotive development. As per recent news, the production model is based on this technological platform.

New features will be enhanced performance using all-around full-scene scenes illumination with unique car model shapes such as length:4930mm width:1895mm height:1487mm and a wheelbase of 2915mm. Additionally, N7 boasts AI-zero cloud seat plus momenta level-assisted driving electronic system to integrate advanced navigation for enhanced driving experience.

For this production unit, it will be combined with a 200kW electric motor providing better range performance, yet currently there isn't enough data regarding the range of all electric version units. At the present moment Nissan as well as Dongfeng announced plans to launch 4 more new energy products by 2025-6 period.

This year the upcoming release at an official event is just expected for first and second model; more on it will emerge closer to date and can already look forward to seeing these two new vehicles during those releases.