Car industry: Tesla could take a stake in Nissan

Tesla has come into play as a new potential partner for a collaboration with the Japanese car manufacturer Nissan. This may sound surprising at first, but the current background is the protective tariffs threatened by the USA. According to a report in the Financial Times, there are plans for Tesla to acquire a stake in Nissan. The plans were drawn up by Hiro Mizuno, a former member of the Tesla Board of Directors, and Japan's former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and his former advisor Hiroto Izumi, among others. The newspaper writes this with reference to informed circles.

Teslas are to roll out of the Nissan plants in the USA

The idea behind this sees Tesla as a strategic investor with an interest in Nissan's factories in the USA. Tesla could use them to ramp up its US production in the short term if the US government were to actually apply the announced protective tariffs. Previously, merger talks between Nissan and Honda had failed. The two Japanese manufacturers originally wanted to use their combined resources to better position themselves against Tesla and powerful Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers such as BYD. Now they seem to be following the old tactic of "if you can't beat them – join them" in the very short term, which only makes sense in light of the new US government's plans.

The news of a possible entry by Musk's electric car company caused Nissan shares on the Tokyo stock exchange to rise by a good 10 percent in the short term, corresponding to a market capitalization of just under 11 billion euros. Tesla's market capitalization is almost 1.1 trillion euros. Renault's stake in Nissan, which has existed since 1999, still exists, but has shrunk over the years to just under 36 percent. Communication between the two has been severely disrupted for years, and there has been no creative cooperation for some time.

(fpi)