“We have 12 to 14 months of survival left,” warns a brand executive

The situation is decidedly bleak at Nissan, which is seeking by all means to ensure its sustainability. Elimination of some 9,000 jobs worldwide, reduction of 20% of its overall production capacity, sale of Mitsubishi shares, nothing is taboo.

But despite this, as two senior managers of the brand declared to the American financial daily, the company still has 12 to 14 months of survival if a new major investor is not found very quickly. This investor is obviously no longer Renault, which recently reduced its stake in Nissan from 46 to 40%. So who? An old rogue, a great figure in the automobile industry, seems to have predicted it last summer.

Takeover by Honda?

We are of course talking about Carlos Ghosn, former supreme leader of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. Last August, when Honda and Nissan announced their strategic partnership for the joint development of electric vehicles, Ghosn declared that he did not see how this association could work, unless it was a disguised merger, or even a discreet takeover of power by Honda over Nissan and Mitsubishi.

Today, Nissan's situation seems to confirm Nostrada-Ghosn's prediction. We can think what we want about this fallen boss, but we cannot deny that he knows the automotive world. And if all this information comes together, we will know in less than a year if Honda and Nissan are indeed working towards a closer union.