A piece in the Financial Times the other day quotes a source within the company who says "we have 12 or 14 months to survive." Nissan recently announced plans to lay off just shy of 7 percent of its global workforce – some 9,000 people – and that it will cut production capacity by 20 percent. There are rumors the company is in talks with Honda about the possibility of the latter buying a major stake in Nissan – but that seems unlikely for the same reason a healthy dog won't put a dead chicken around its own neck.

Hilariously – in the gallows humor sense – the fools over at Motor Authority say that a "partnership with Honda . . . will help Nissan expand its EV lineup." But expanding its EV lineup is the very last thing Nissan needs if it wants to avoid the fate of Studebaker, Pontiac and Plymouth. 

It is because Nissan malinvested in the EVs it already has that it has "12 or 14 months to survive." It has been losing money on the Leaf – its first EV – since this device first came out back in 2010 and fifteen years is a long time to lose money "selling" a vehicle that cannot be sold for a profit – the same being true of every battery powered device that has been produced thus far. Including Tesla's devices – which do not sell for a profit. The devices are internally subsidized by Tesla, which makes money by selling carbon credits to other car companies that – effectively – have to buy them to appease the regulatory apparat. It is either that or malinvest in their own devices, which would cost them even more money than they lose buying "credits" from Tesla.

Tesla also makes money via the stock market. People buy Tesla stock because the regulatory apparat is effectively forcing (via the regulations) the production of  its devices, which stock buyers assume will lead to people buying them. And up to now, this grift has worked – for Tesla – because there were enough people willing to buy its devices. But that pool is drying up fast – because here are only so many people who can afford a $50k device – and so Tesla is now headed down the same road as Nissan.

Ordinarily, Nissan – like any car company free to heed the market – would have stopped selling the Leaf ten years ago, after it became clear the thing could not be "sold" except at a loss. It is why Pontiac stopped selling the Aztek after just five years. Too late, alas, for Pontiac.