(Reuters) – A group made up of several Japanese personalities, including a former Prime Minister, has drawn up plans for the American car manufacturer Tesla to invest in Nissan after the failure of its merger with Honda Motor, reported the Financial Times Friday.

According to a distinct report from the Nikkei newspaper, the Taiwanese Foxconn proposed to form a partnership with Honda with the ultimate goal of creating a quadripartite framework which would also include Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors.

The Japanese group at the origin of Tesla’s investment project in Nissan hopes that the company led by Elon Musk will become a strategic investor, believing that it wishes to acquire Nissan factories in the United States, according to the Financial Times.

The proposal, led by the former member of the Board of Directors of Tesla Hiromichi Mizuno, is supported by the former Japanese Minister Yoshihide Suga and his former Hiroto Izumi assistant, specifies the Financial Times, citing anonymous sources.

The office of Yoshihide Suga said he was not aware of a plan to encourage Tesla to invest in Nissan.

In a message published on X, Hiromichi Mizuno said he was “absolutely not involved” in what was reported in the publication of the Financial Times, adding that Tesla had any interest in Nissan factories Given the unique design of Tesla factories.

Nissan refused to comment on the report, while Tesla did not respond to requests for comments. Reuters was unable to contact Hiroto Izumi immediately.

Matt Britzman, principal analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said there was no interest in Tesla to invest in the infrastructure of a former automaker.

“Tesla’s secret weapon is the original way in which its factories have been designed and optimized for its cars,” said Matt Britzman, adding that the company had sufficient capacity in its existing factories.

The Nissan action won 9.6% on Friday, after the publication of the Financial Times.

Last week, the automaker and Honda ended their negotiations in order to create an automobile company worth $ 60 billion (57.29 billion euros). Nissan said he would seek new partnerships.

According to the Financial Times, some members of the Board of Directors of Nissan proposed Tesla and Apple as ideal strategic investors.

Apple did not respond to requests for comments.

Sources previously told Reuters that Nissan was open to the idea of ​​working with new partners, the largest electronics manufacturer in the world, Foxconn, being considered one of the candidates.

Later on Friday, the Nikkei newspaper reported that by associating with Honda, Foxconn aimed to form a wider cooperation framework to compete with Tesla and Chinese manufacturers of electric vehicles.

Honda refused to comment on the Nikkei report. Foxconn representatives did not immediately respond to a comment request.

(Rajveer Singh Pardesi and Mrinmay Dey in Bangalore, with Daniel Leussink, Kaori Kaneko and Kantaro Komiya in Tokyo; Diana Mandia and Elena Smirnova, edited by Kate Entringer and Augustin Turpin)

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