Nissan Motor will aim to announce the direction of its possible integration with Honda Motor by mid-February, a company spokesperson said on Friday, pushing back the plan from the end of January. The two Japanese automakers have been in talks to explore a merger by 2026,

Honda and Nissan will unveil an outline of their business integration around mid-February, informed sources said Friday.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Honda has been pushing Nissan to accelerate its restructuring efforts. In November, Nissan announced plans to cut 9,000 jobs worldwide and reduce its global production capacity by 20 percent after reporting a more than 90 percent drop in net profit for the April-September period.

Renault executives travelled to Japan this week to meet counterparts at Nissan in an effort to maximise the value of the French automaker's stake in the Japanese firm ahead of its merger with Honda, a source close to the matter told Reuters.

There's a lot at stake here, with other players like Renault and Mitsubishi involved as well, to say nothing about Foxconn's intervention in the matter. At the core of this merger is the elephant in the room,