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That's Marketplace.org from the BBC World Service. I'm Leanna Byrne. Good morning. A potential merger of two of Japan's largest carmakers

could happen as Nissan and Honda are in talks to join forces. The two companies say they're exploring

various possibilities for future collaboration. The BBC's Surinjana Tuari has more. Hello.

Hi. What details do we know so far? Discussions between these two auto

giants were first reported by Japan's Niki newspaper and now the BBC understands that Honda

and Nissan are indeed discussing a potential merger. Now the talks are understood to be in the very

early stages and there is no guarantee that a deal will be struck.

But this is the clearest sign yet of some sort of reorganisation in Japan's auto industry,

in the face of immense challenges posed by car makers like Tesla and other Chinese electric vehicle makers.

Now, the two manufacturers had already agreed to collaborate

on some aspects of making electric vehicles

with that announcement coming back in March.

Any tie-up of Japan's number two and number three automakers,

both of which these companies are, would certainly create

a formidable domestic rival to Toyota, which of course is Japan's largest automaker.

Now, some analysts say this is good news because of the pressures that both the companies

are facing right now. Here's Neil Newman,

head of strategy at Asteris Advisory, Japan. Putting together a very significant Japanese car

...