Nissan logs 115.76 bil. yen net loss in April-June on US tariffs
The loss in the first fiscal quarter is a sharp reversal from a profit of 28.56 billion yen in the same quarter last year.
Nissan expects an operating loss of 180 billion yen for the six months through September. It did not issue a forecast for the full business year through March 2026, citing uncertainties over tariffs.
President Donald Trump raised auto tariffs by 25 percentage points to 27.5 percent in April, but the United States and Japan agreed last week to reduce the rate to 15 percent for Japanese autos.
"There is a change, but it's still not clear to us (what) some of the conditions and when the change for the tariff from Japan to the U.S. will come into place," Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa said at a press conference.
"We welcome the improvement, but 15 percent is still a challenging number, which is why (we) need to continue...improving costs and reducing our exposure to tariffs as much as we can," he added.
The carmaker logged an operating loss of 79.12 billion yen in the three-month period, compared with 995 million in profit a year earlier, as sales fell 9.7 percent to 2.71 trillion yen.
Tariffs accounted for the bulk of the operating loss at 68.7 billion yen, with the automaker also factoring in the weakening of the U.S. and Canadian dollars.
Meanwhile, its global vehicle sales for the first fiscal quarter fell 10.1 percent from a year earlier to 707,000 units, with Nissan citing growing competition in China and waning confidence in the brand among Japanese customers.
The automaker is in the midst of overhaul efforts to restore profitability by cutting back its global workforce and production capacity.
It has announced plans to reduce global production capacity from 3.5 million units, excluding China, to 2.5 million units by cutting the number of production sites in Japan and abroad from 17 to 10 by fiscal 2027.
Nissan said earlier in the day that it would end production at its Cuernavaca plant in Mexico by the end of March 2026.
Earlier this month, it announced that it will cease vehicle production at its flagship Oppama plant in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo, by the end of fiscal 2027, with operations to be transferred to its factory in southwestern Japan.
"We are trying to keep a strategic geographical coverage while we resize the system for something that is more manageable for the level of revenue we are commanding," Espinosa said.
He declined to comment on reports that the automaker planned to work with Honda Motor Co. to share common basic software, but confirmed they were in discussions on several joint projects.
The two companies announced in December plans to begin merger talks under a holding company, aiming to share the financial burden of developing electric vehicles and software to better compete with global rivals. But the talks broke down less than two months later.
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