Nissan earnings

Nissan also reported its fourth-quarter results, with operating profit plunging by nearly 94% to 5.8 billion yen, while revenue remained flat.

The company swung to a net loss of 676 billion yen ($4.5 billion) in the fourth quarter, compared with a 101.3 billion profit in the same period the year before.

For the full year, operating profit plummeted by almost 88% year on year to 69.8 billion yen, with the company attributing it to a decrease in sales volume, an increase in sales incentives and inflation. Revenue for the full year came in nearly flat.

Nissan also announced a plan to save 500 billion yen over the next few years. Among the measures undertaken would be a headcount reduction of 20,000 workers and consolidating its production plants to 10 from 17 by March 2028.

Nissan declines to give a profit forecast for the coming year, blames ‘uncertain nature’ of U.S. tariffs

May 13, 2025

Japan’s Nissan posted an annual net loss of $4.5 billion on Tuesday while saying it plans to cut 15% of its global workforce and warning about the possible impact of U.S. tariffs.

The heavily indebted carmaker, whose mooted merger with Honda collapsed this year, is slashing production as part of its expensive business turnaround plan.

“Nissan must prioritise self-improvement with greater urgency and speed,” CEO Ivan Espinosa told reporters.

“The reality is clear. We have a very high cost structure. To complicate matters further, the global market environment is volatile and unpredictable, making planning and investment increasingly challenging.”

Nissan reported a net loss of 671 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the financial year to March 2025.

Its worst ever full-year net loss was 684 billion yen in 1999-2000, during a crisis that birthed its rocky partnership with French automaker Renault.

Renault, which has nearly a 36% stake in Nissan, said Tuesday it expects to take a 2.2-billion-euro ($2.4-billion) hit in the first quarter due to Nissan’s turnaround plan.

Nissan did not issue a net profit forecast for 2025-2026, only saying that it expects to see sales of 12.5 trillion yen.

“The uncertain nature of U.S. tariff measures makes it difficult for us to rationally estimate our full-year forecast for operating profit and net profit, and therefore we have left those figures unspecified,” Espinosa said.

Nissan’s shares closed 3% higher Tuesday after reports, later confirmed by the company, that it planned to slash a total of 20,000 jobs worldwide.

“We wouldn’t be doing this if it was not necessary to survive,” Espinosa said of the cuts.


Junk ratings

Nissan, as part of recovery efforts, also said it would “consolidate its vehicle production plants from 17 to 10 by fiscal year 2027”.

“In China, we will strengthen our market performance by unleashing multiple new-energy vehicles,” it added.

Like many peers, Nissan is finding it difficult to compete against Chinese electric vehicle brands.

A merger with Japanese rival Honda had been seen as a potential lifeline but talks collapsed in February when the latter proposed making Nissan a subsidiary.

Espinosa said Tuesday that Nissan remained “open to collaborating with multiple partners”, including Honda.

Nissan has faced numerous speed bumps in recent years—including the 2018 arrest of former boss Carlos Ghosn, who later fled Japan concealed in an audio equipment box.

The automaker, whose shares have tanked nearly 40% over the past year, appointed Espinosa CEO in March.

Ratings agencies have downgraded the firm to junk, with Moody’s citing its “weak profitability” and “ageing model portfolio”.

And this month Nissan shelved plans, only recently agreed, to build a $1 billion battery plant in southern Japan owing to the tough “business environment”.

Of Japan’s major automakers, Nissan is likely to be the most severely impacted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff on imported vehicles, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Tatsuo Yoshida told AFP ahead of Tuesday’s earnings report.

Its clientele has historically been more price-sensitive than that of its rivals, he said.

So the company “can’t pass the costs on to consumers to the same extent as Toyota or Honda without suffering a significant loss in sales units”, he added.

Nissan cut plants and workers as new CEO Espinosa takes axe to costs

May 13, 2025

YOKOHAMA, Japan, May 13 (Reuters) - Nissan Motor unveiled sweeping new cost cuts on Tuesday, saying it would eliminate 11,000 more jobs and close 7 plants, capping a tumultuous year that has left the Japanese automaker fighting to turn itself around.

Nissan, which held off on releasing estimates for the financial year just starting, saw its profit almost wiped out in the one just ended. Operating profit totalled 69.8 billion yen ($472 million) in the 12 months to March, a decline of 88% from the previous year.

The automaker has been badly damaged by weakening sales in the U.S. and China, and then saw merger talks with Honda collapse and was recently forced to replace its chief executive. Like rivals, it is also being squeezed by U.S. tariffs and threatened by fast-rising Chinese EV makers in markets in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.

New CEO Ivan Espinosa is aiming for total cost savings of some 500 billion yen. But he faces the difficult job of turning around an automaker that has seen its once-mighty brand value eroded.

"Our full-year financial results are a wake-up call. The reality is very clear. Our variable costs are rising. Our fixed costs are higher than our current revenue can support," Espinosa told a press conference.

The new job cuts will bring Nissan's total workforce reduction to around 20,000 jobs, after it previously announced plans to cut 9,000 positions. It will cut the number of its production plants to 10 from 17 and reduce the complexity of parts by 70%. It did not give specifics on which plants it expects to close.

Analysts have said Nissan, among its many missteps, is also paying the price for years under former Chairman Carlos Ghosn where it focused too heavily on sales volume, and used heavy discounts to keep cars moving off lots. That has left it with an ageing line-up that it is now scrambling to update.

Still, it seems unlikely to expect a sudden turnaround - the automaker sees a 200 billion yen operating loss in the first quarter, CFO Jeremie Papin said.