Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn says September sales at his company are hurting, due to the rise in gas prices in the wake of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. "There was a market slowdown starting at the beginning of September following the first hurricane and the second hurricane is obviously taking a toll on consumer confidence," Ghosn told CNBC. As a result, September sales will be slower, he predicted, and the sluggishness could stay through the fourth quarter if gas prices don't recede. On Tuesday, the Conference Board reported that consumer confidence fell by the largest amount in 15 years in September, from 105.5 to 86.6, as Americans expressed concern over the financial aftermath of the Gulf storms.

DETROIT -- Nissan North America Inc. is creating a division to sell light commercial vehicles in North America, a market segment where it is not present.

The automaker has not determined the number of vehicle lines, types of vehicles or the distribution network, spokesman Fred Standish said.

Examples of light commercial vehicles are delivery vans and parking lot shuttle buses.

Nissan's Light Commercial Vehicle and Fleet Division begins operating Wednesday, Feb. 1. It will be headed by Mike Hobson, a 15-year Nissan veteran. Hobson will report to Jed Connelly, head of sales and marketing for Nissan North America.

Nissan markets light commercial vehicles in Europe and Japan. Its European nameplates includes Cabstar Interstar, Primastar and Kubistar. Nameplates in Japan include Civilian, Atlas, AD Van and Vanette.

The automaker hasn't decided if it will import existing Nissan trucks from Japan and Europe for North America, or develop new trucks, Standish said. Also undecided is a distribution plan for the vehicles.

"You see these types of trucks running around every day, and we're not in that market at all in the United States," Standish said.

Expanding into the light commercial vehicle market in the United States is part of Nissan's growth strategy under its three-year Value Up plan.

TOKYO -- Nissan Motor Co. and French partner Renault SA said on Monday their combined global auto sales rose 5.9 percent in 2005 from the previous year to 6,129,254 units.

That gave the alliance a global market share of 9.8 percent and an unchanged fourth-place ranking in the world, with 5.74 percent for Nissan and 4.04 percent for Renault, they said in a joint statement.

Sales at Japan's second-biggest automaker climbed 9.2 percent to 3,597,748 units, while those at the Renault group, which includes the Dacia and Samsung brands, grew by 1.7 percent to 2,531,506 units.

Nissan is held 44 percent by Renault and owns 15 percent of its French partner. Since last spring, they have also shared a chief executive in Carlos Ghosn.

The two companies' alliance, which is in its seventh year, has been a rare success among the partnerships formed in a wave of consolidation in the auto industry over the past decade.

Last year, the partners launched more vehicles based on their common B-class, or small-car, platform through the Clio III for Renault and the Note, Wingroad and Bluebird Slyphy models for Nissan.

Nissan also rolled out the Serena car based on the C-class platform that it shares with Renault's popular Megane line.

In 2005, they developed their third common engine in another step aimed at sharing costs and achieving economies of scale.

DETROIT, June 2 (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co. Ltd (7201.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it had asked its U.S. dealers to stop selling certain 2006 model-year Altimas and Nissan Sentra SE-Rs cars due to reports of excessive oil consumption that could damage the engine or cause a fire.

About 100,000 Altimas and Sentra SE-Rs built between January and May 2006 may have the problem, according to the company.

There have been about 215 reports of excessive oil consumption, mostly from rental-car fleets, and 17 reports of engine fires, resulting in one minor injury, Nissan said.

This is the latest setback for the Japanese auto maker, which has cut U.S. production this year because of sales declines in the region. Nissan's U.S. sales are down 3 percent so far this year.



Nissan said it had extended the engine portion of the vehicles' warranty on Altimas and Sentra SE-Rs built during January to May 2006 to 84 months or 100,000 miles.

NASHVILLE -- Suddenly, Carlos Ghosn's six-year winning streak is looking shaky.

Last year he successfully concluded an ambitious three-year plan to add 1 million sales globally and post operating profits equal to 8 percent of global revenues.

But in May, U.S. sales fell 7.3 percent for Nissan North America Inc., including an 11.7 percent drop at Infiniti Division.

The company has scheduled six extra days of production shutdown at its two big U.S. factories, in Smyrna, Tenn., and Canton, Miss., to prevent inventories from bloating. This month, the Japanese home office also trimmed daily production at two factories there, one of which assembles the Infiniti G35, M45 and Q45 for North America.

Nowadays, Nissan looks more like a cyclical Western company than the quintessential Japanese corporation, Toyota Motor Corp., which reveres relentless, incremental growth.

To complicate things, Nissan has had to halt the global sale of some 2006 four-cylinder Altimas and Sentra SE-Rs built from January through mid-May of this year because of evidence of engine fires.

Ghosn, who began crafting Nissan's revival in 1999, brushed aside criticism that the company was in a slump.

"You can't judge Nissan's long-term strategy by a three- or six-month period," he said of the current situation. "You have to look at five or six years."

Speaking to reporters in Nashville this month as he broke ground for a Nissan headquarters building, Ghosn said that Nissan expected only stable U.S. sales in the first half of 2006. The second half, he said, will see a stream of new sales.

"As for sales being down," Ghosn said, "look at the product plan." During the rest of this year, Nissan says it will launch nine new or redesigned vehicles worldwide.

In the next six months, Nissan's U.S. retailers will receive a redesigned Sentra and Altima. They also will get an Altima hybrid, the new Versa small car from Mexico and the re-engineered Quest minivan. Those products alone should represent half of the brand's annual U.S. sales volume next year.

But until then, Nissan's new management team will have its hands full. On July 1, a slate of new senior managers will begin taking control in Nashville as the company relocates its offices from Gardena, Calif.

Ghosn ordered the move to Nashville to save money. But only 42 percent of the 1,300 staffers decided to move, causing considerable disruption.

Among them: Brad Bradshaw, senior vice president for North American sales and marketing; Bill Bosley, vice president and general manager for Nissan Division; and Larry Dominique, vice president of product development.

In addition to launching the new products, they must deal with a few other models that have slipped this year. Nissan's foray into large trucks, another leg in Ghosn's revival of the company, has been bedeviled by falling market demand for vehicles with big engines.

Sales of the full-sized Titan pickup were off 23.2 percent in May compared with May 2005, and the full-sized Armada SUV is down by 30.2 percent. June began with 100-day supplies of both trucks.

Worse elsewhere

Other auto brands are facing worse concerns. While Nissan Division sales are down by a modest 1.8 percent this year, Chevrolet is down by 8.7 percent and Mitsubishi by 12.3 percent. Ford Motor Co., whose F-series trucks are the target for the Titan and a newly designed Toyota Tundra due out this fall, has a 104-day supply of those trucks. The Chrysler group is sitting on a 125-day supply of its Dodge Ram pickup.

In the same vein, Nissan's U.S. challenges are milder than those in its home market. Nissan's Japanese sales plunged 18.5 percent in April. Ghosn's COO in Japan, Toshiyuki Shiga, said earlier this month that the sales dip was a "backlash" from last year's sales push.

"We totally expected a backlash, but the decline exceeded our expectations," he said.

Asked whether Nissan's targets under the 180 plan, which ended March 31, 2005, might have pulled ahead U.S. sales from the current year, Ghosn gave an adamant "no."

"We added 1 million sales," while maintaining excellent profit margins, he said, referring to the target of his 180 plan. "We didn't give away any sales."

But until then, Nissan's new management team will have its hands full. On July 1, a slate of new senior managers will begin taking control in Nashville as the company relocates its offices from Gardena, Calif.

Ghosn ordered the move to Nashville to save money. But only 42 percent of the 1,300 staffers decided to move, causing considerable disruption.