- Nissan’s shares jumped after a report said Tesla is being courted as a potential investor.
- The Financial Times said that a consortium of high-profile figures in Japan are involved.
- Musk quickly rejected the idea, and Tesla’s focus on robotaxis means it is an unlikely savior for Nissan.
Nissan is looking for a savior, but despite what some investors hope, it won’t be Elon Musk.
Shares in the beleaguered Japanese carmaker surged 9.5% on Friday amid reports that Tesla was being courted as a potential investor, even though Musk quickly poured cold water over the idea.
The Financial Times reported that a consortium of Japanese investors and former politicians planned to approach Tesla to discuss an investment, based on the belief that the US automaker was interested in buying Nissan’s factories in the US.
While Tesla has its own extensive manufacturing operations in the US, acquiring Nissan’s factories in Tennessee and Mississippi would allow it to boost domestic production as the Trump administration proposes a new round of tariffs on imported cars.
However, the suggestion that Tesla might be interested in Nissan’s factories was quickly shot down by Musk.
“The Tesla factory IS the product,” he wrote on X in response to The Financial Times report.
“The Cybercab production line is like nothing else in the automotive industry,” Musk added, referencing Tesla’s upcoming steering wheel-less robotaxi.
Ex-Tesla board member Hiro Mizuno, one of the figures named in the FT’s article, denied being involved in a post on X. Mizuno said he doubted Tesla would be interested in Nissan’s factories as Tesla’s factory design is so “unique.”
The reported attempt to get Tesla to invest is a sign of how desperate things have become for Nissan.
The Japanese auto giant’s credit rating was downgraded to junk status by ratings agency Moody’s on Friday, a week after a proposed $50 billion merger with rival Honda fell through.
Nissan’s sales have plunged in China and the US thanks to fierce competition from Chinese EV companies and a lackluster hybrid lineup, and the automaker is in dire financial straights.
The company has seen its profits crash and projected an annual loss of 80 billion yen ($519 million) in last week’s earnings.
Nissan’s disastrous financials have left it looking for investment, with iPhone manufacturer Foxconn a potential suitor.
CEO Makoto Uchida, who has pledged to turn things around by cutting 9,000 jobs globally and slashing global vehicle production, said Nissan would explore all options “without taboos” to ensure the company’s future.
As it stands, Tesla seems like an unlikely savior.
Tesla’s production lines make heavy use of advanced manufacturing techniques such as gigacasting, where giant presses are used to create large sections of vehicles, and converting Nissan’s factories would likely be a difficult and expensive process.
Musk has also pivoted the company away from mass-produced electric vehicles and toward autonomous vehicles and robotics, such as the self-driving Cybercab and Tesla’s Optimus robots.
Tesla quietly dropped its goal of building 20 million cars annually last May. The company also reportedly scrapped plans to build a $25,000 EV, though Musk has said more affordable models are still coming this year.
The automaker faces its own headwinds, with Tesla recording its first-ever annual sales decline last year and facing an uncertain EV landscape in the US thanks to Trump’s rollback of federal support for electric vehicles.
Tesla and Nissan did not respond to requests for comment, sent outside normal working hours.
