Latest news with #Ghosn
The Drive
18-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Drive
Nissan's New CEO Just Might Be Cutthroat Enough to Turn Things Around
The latest car news, reviews, and features. With the automaker seemingly on the brink of collapse, Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa has laid out a revival plan that is shockingly cutthroat yet surprisingly familiar. The ghost of Ghosn, anyone? Last week, Nissan Motor Co. released its financial results for the 2024 fiscal year, and, to our unsurprised ears, the numbers were not good. Although the Japanese automaker enjoyed a cumulative 2.8% year-over-year sales increase in the U.S. for its Nissan and Infiniti brands, including 10.3% growth in the fourth quarter, on a global scale, those last three months resulted in a 670.9 billion yen ($4.5 billion) net loss. This is Nissan's second-largest fiscal year failure in 25 years, reports Automotive News . And yet, to say Nissan has tried everything to right the ship is premature. Despite the failed courtship with Honda, laying off 9,000 employees, and slashing production by 20%, apparently, there is still more fat that can be trimmed. And checking the couch cushions for change won't be enough. The new slimdown is called the Re:Nissan. Between now and 2027, the revival plan involves reducing the workforce by another 11,000 jobs and consolidating its 17 production plants to just 10. And some way somehow, finding a total cost savings of 500 billion yen ($3.34 billion). 'We wouldn't be doing this if it was not necessary for the survival of Nissan,' Espinosa said. The shrunken but streamlined strategy is to reach 'the goal of returning to profitability by fiscal year 2026.' Espinosa was appointed CEO less than two months ago, but isn't new to Nissan. Since 2003, Espinosa has gradually climbed the ranks, mainly on the product side. He started as a product specialist, eventually serving as Chief Planning Officer, and is now the multihyphenate executive officer, president, and CEO. This also means he's no stranger to former CEO Carlos Ghosn, who, coincidentally, was brought in to reboot Nissan during the aughts. Which he did, and a year ahead of schedule. In fact, much of Espinosa's Re:Nissan and Ghosn's Nissan Revival Plan overlap. Is it a coincidence or merely following a strategy that has already worked for the automaker that is once again treading water? Nissan As Automotive News points out, Ghosn's appointment followed a massive fiscal year fallout, and his plan aimed to cut 20,000 jobs, close five plants, and cut costs by 1 trillion yen ($6.68 billion). Similarly to Ghosn, Espinosa has opened up the internal communication channels, seeking cost-saving ideas and input from 3,000 employees. About 2,300 recommendations have been made, of which roughly 800 are ready to be implemented. But did the Nissan revival 1.0 work? Mostly. What followed were nearly two decades of net gains, but there was a lot of discounting for sales volume and little in the way of fresh product. And then Ghosn was booted. The frugal CEO became an international fugitive and, subsequently, Netflix documentary fodder. But that's probably a playbook page Espinosa has already torn out. As for a dance partner, the new Nissan boss isn't opposed to sharing the floor, but it has to be for the right reasons. 'The point is not to do a partnership because we need to be partnered with somebody because of the cash position,' Espinosa told Bloomberg TV . Perhaps a mega merger isn't in the works, or what's best, but Nissan is open to discussing partnerships with other automakers, tech firms, and even China-based companies. For now, the focus is inward. Re:Nissan is brutal, but at the same time, what the OEM needs to get back on its feet. 'Are we confident that this is enough? The answer is yes, this will be enough to drive the results that we need, but we need to move fast,' Espinosa said. 'We want to bring the heartbeat back.' Beverly Braga has enjoyed an eventful career as a Swiss Army knife, having held roles as an after-school teacher, film critic, PR manager, transcriber, and video producer – to name a few. She is currently a communications consultant and freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous outlets covering automotive, entertainment, lifestyle, and food & beverage. Beverly grew up in Hawaii but roots for Washington, D.C., sports teams.
Mint
18-05-2025
- Automotive
- Mint
Nissan's destiny remains hitched to the wagon of globalization
In retrospect, you can put a date on the moment globalization peaked: 24 January 2018. In the rarefied winter air of Davos, Switzerland, Carlos Ghosn—then boss of the sprawling alliance of Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi—was asked what he thought of a tentative initial round of tariffs on washing machines and solar panels imposed by Donald Trump in his first term as US president. Flush with the confidence of delivering sales results confirming that the alliance was the world's biggest car group by volume, and with his eye on a unification of the business under a single corporate roof, Ghosn seemed untroubled. 'I don't see anything that is going to lead to a heavy significant burst of protectionism," he told Bloomberg Television. Also Read: Trump's auto tariffs: Prepare for a Chinese reign of global streets The tectonic plates, however, were already shifting. Within weeks, Nissan insiders had started the internal investigations that would lead to Ghosn's arrest later that year and dramatic escape from Japan in 2019. The fractured group has since spent the best part of a decade trying and failing to finalize the separation of its French and Japanese limbs. With Nissan's announcement of a ¥670.9 billion ($4.5 billion) loss last Wednesday alongside a promise to close seven of its 17 factories, one of the world's great carmakers may be approaching its endgame. That's certainly the judgement of investors. The stock is now trading like scrap metal, at less than a quarter of the value of the assets on its books. Its debt is also junk, in the view of all three major ratings companies. Its ¥1.3 trillion market cap is less than the ¥1.5 trillion value of its net cash. If you bought Nissan shares at almost any time since 1975, you would currently be sitting on paper losses. New CEO Ivan Espinosa, just months into the job after his predecessor Makoto Uchida stepped down following an abortive merger attempt with Honda, is touting the company's third restructuring plan in five years. It won't be enough to stanch the bleeding. Also Read: A tie-up between Honda and Nissan will not fix their problems The opportunity to fix this was during the previous seven years, when the global car industry was undergoing its most dramatic revolution since the dawn of the internal combustion engine. But throughout that period, Nissan was consumed by the fratricidal bitterness left over from Ghosn's ouster. Even now, roughly one-sixth of Nissan's latest annual results announcement was consumed with updates on his case. That's left the business stuck in the past. At that 2018 Davos meeting, Ghosn could claim to be running the world's biggest maker of electric cars. Nissan has barely grown EV sales since. Espinosa's latest plans to revive its China unit seem like a bad joke too: Sales there have fallen by about half since 2019. He's hoping to turn this around with a focus on plug-in vehicles, but Nissan is starting from so far back it's barely visible. The company sold 12,641 EVs and plug-in hybrids in China last year, giving it less than 0.1% of the local market and failing to crack the top 60 local new-energy vehicle brands. Detroit has dealt with the turbulence of the past decade by retreating to its home market to lick its wounds. Also Read: Raghuram Rajan: How emerging economies can prosper in a protectionist world That won't work for Nissan, which is still too global for the protectionist competitive landscape we're living in. It's a Japanese business only in name: Despite accounting for 45% of jobs and about 35% of manufacturing assets, just 16% of sales are at home. Most of its revenues are in North America, and about 30% of the vehicles produced in its Japanese factories are exported to the same market. Trump's 25% tariff on auto imports are more than sufficient to wipe any profits from that trade. Nissan's revival since 1999 by a superstar French-Brazilian-Lebanese executive was a parable for the successes of globalization. Under the surface, though, nationalism never really went away. For all the purely corporate failures that led to Ghosn's downfall, a shadowy proxy war between factions of the French and Japanese governments contributed just as much. Also Read: Prachi Mishra: Don't leave labour behind if globalization is to succeed Nissan's rivals don't have much opportunity to enjoy schadenfreude. A world where major carmakers hibernate at home will be an unfriendly one for almost every national champion, except those from China, the one place with the scale, manufacturing expertise and technological edge in EVs to dominate all others. The world's best chance of holding back this competitive onslaught was to work together across borders. The collapse of Nissan extinguishes all remaining hope of that future. New great powers typically rise to dominance while the old order squabbles obliviously. With auto companies, as with nation states, we are seeing that pattern play out again. ©Bloomberg The author is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change and energy.
Business Times
15-05-2025
- Automotive
- Business Times
Nissan is dying and taking globalisation with it
IN RETROSPECT, you can put a date on the moment globalisation peaked: Jan 24, 2018. In the rarefied winter air of Davos, Switzerland, Carlos Ghosn – then boss of the sprawling alliance of Nissan Motor Co, Renault and Mitsubishi Motors Corp – was asked what he thought of a tentative initial round of tariffs on washing machines and solar panels imposed by President Donald Trump. Flush with the confidence of delivering sales results confirming the alliance was the world's biggest car group by volume, and with his eye on a unification of the business under a single corporate roof, he seemed untroubled. 'I don't see anything that is going to lead to a heavy significant burst of protectionism,' he told Bloomberg Television. The tectonic plates were already shifting. Within weeks, Nissan insiders had started the internal investigations that would lead to Ghosn's arrest later that year and dramatic escape from Japan in 2019. The fractured group has since spent the best part of a decade trying and failing to finalise the separation of its French and Japanese limbs. With Nissan's announcement of a 670.9 billion yen (S$6 billion) loss on Wednesday (May 14) alongside a promise to close seven of its 17 factories, one of the world's great carmakers may be approaching its endgame. That is certainly the judgment of investors. The stock is now trading like scrap metal, at less than a quarter of the value of the assets on its books. Its debt is also junk, in the view of all three major ratings companies. Its 1.3 trillion yen market cap is less than the 1.5 trillion yen value of its net cash. If you bought Nissan shares at almost any time since 1975, you would currently be sitting on paper losses. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up New chief executive officer Ivan Espinosa, just months into the job after his predecessor Makoto Uchida stepped down following an abortive merger attempt with Honda Motor Co, is touting the company's third restructuring plan in five years. It is mostly a reheated version of the last programme Uchida put forward six months ago, before his departure. It will not be enough to stanch the bleeding. The opportunity to fix this was during the previous seven years, when the global car industry was undergoing its most dramatic revolution since the dawn of the internal combustion engine. But throughout that period, Nissan was consumed by the fratricidal bitterness left over from Ghosn's ouster. Even now, roughly one-sixth of the latest annual results announcement was consumed with updates on his case. That has left the business stuck in the past. At that 2018 Davos meeting, Ghosn could claim to be running the world's biggest maker of electric cars. Nissan has barely grown electric vehicle (EV) sales since. Espinosa's latest plans to revive its China unit seem like a bad joke, too: sales there have fallen by about half since 2019. He is hoping to turn this around with a focus on plug-in vehicles, but Nissan is starting from so far back it is barely visible. The company sold 12,641 EVs and plug-in hybrids in China last year, giving it less than 0.1 per cent of the local market and failing to crack the top 60 local new-energy vehicle brands. Detroit has dealt with the turbulence of the past decade by retreating to its home market to lick its wounds. That will not work for Nissan, which is still too global for the protectionist competitive landscape we are living in. It is a Japanese business in name only: despite accounting for 45 per cent of jobs and about 35 per cent of manufacturing assets, just 16 per cent of sales are at home. More than half of revenues are in North America, and about 30 per cent of the vehicles produced in its Japanese factories are exported to the same market. Trump's 25 per cent tariff on auto imports are more than sufficient to wipe any profits from that trade. Nissan's revival since 1999 by a superstar French-Brazilian-Lebanese executive was a parable for the successes of globalisation. Ghosn himself was felt for years to embody 'Davos Man', the globetrotting bosses who made a pilgrimage to a Swiss ski resort for the annual World Economic Forum. Under the surface, though, nationalism never really went away. For all the purely corporate failures that led to its downfall, a shadowy proxy war between factions of the French and Japanese governments contributed just as much. Its rivals do not have much opportunity to enjoy the schadenfreude. A world where the major carmakers hibernate at home will be an unfriendly one for almost every national champion except those from China, the one place with the scale, manufacturing expertise and technological edge in EVs to dominate all others. The world's best chance of holding back this competitive onslaught was to work together across borders. The collapse of Nissan extinguishes all remaining hope of that future. New great powers typically rise to dominance while the old order squabbles obliviously. With auto companies, as with nation states, we are seeing that pattern play out again. BLOOMBERG
Miami Herald
13-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Former Nissan CEO makes a harsh prediction for the company's future
Ever since news of President Trump's tariffs was announced on April 2, a day that Trump referred to as "Liberation Day," both the business and the consumer world have been overwhelmed and shaken by the potential ramifications. Trump's tariffs on China - which were a mind-boggling 145% before an announcement came on May 12 that talks had resulted in levies being lowered significantly - had already begun to wreak havoc. Chinese-based companies that had seen great success in the U.S. market had to announce major changes to their business models. For example, Temu's "Shop Like a Billionaire" concept faced challenges. Temu has since announced it will ship all U.S. orders from the U.S., rather than from China, as it did previously. Related: Temu makes a huge dreaded change amid high China tariffs Another badly affected sector was automotive. Big names like Ford, which announced price hikes on its vehicles, were forced to undertake drastic measures to combat the stresses tariffs will place on their manufacturing process. Other automakers, such as Mitsubishi, will hold their vehicles in port for the foreseeable future instead of offloading them and being forced to pay duties. The company will rely on stock that's already in the U.S. to sell to customers. These changes are bad enough, but hit even harder for a company like Nissan that's already been struggling. The Japanese automaker announced on May 12 that it would cut 10,000 more jobs globally in addition to the layoffs it previously announced, bringing the total to about 20,000 - or 15% of its workforce, NHK reported. Now former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has spoken out about why he believes Nissan is struggling so much, and his comments don't pull any punches. In an interview with French Newscaster BFM TV published on May 5, the Lebanese-French-Brazilian businessman and former automotive executive says that Nissan is in a desperate situation and that it is "forced to go begging for help from one of its main competitors in Japan." Ghosn's comment refers to Honda's prior agreement with Nissan and Mitsubishi about a potential merger. However, the companies announced in February 2025 that they had decided to terminate the merger. Had it gone through, the partnership would have allowed them to share the cost and development burden of creating the next generation of vehicles. Ghosn also believes the situation in which Nissan finds itself was predictable "as early as 2020," and that "decisions that were too slow." He also said that "most of the problems lie with Nissan's management." While Ghosn's controversial comments about his previous employer may be spot on - after all, he did spend 18 years at Nissan - the ex-CEO is also a controversial figure. Ghosn has had a long career in the automotive industry, starting at Michelin in the '70s and eventually becoming chief operating officer of Michelin's South American operations. He then formed the Renault-Nissan Alliance in March 1999 and joined Nissan as its chief operating officer in June 1999, before going on to become the company's CEO in June 2001. While Nissan did return to profitability while Ghosn was at the helm, thanks to the Nissan Revival Plan he spearheaded, his involvement with the company came to a halt after he was arrested in Japan on claims of financial misconduct that included misuse of company funds. Related: OpenAI founder's newest project could destroy your privacy The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Can troubled automaker Nissan survive the next 5 years? Why the experts say yes
Nissan's been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately ― management turmoil, falling sales, potential merger or acquisition ― but consumers shouldn't be concerned the automaker and its dealers won't be around if they own a Nissan or Infiniti vehicle. Nissan faces myriad challenges, but analysts don't see the sun setting on the company anytime soon, and insiders are buoyed by a new management team's first moves. 'It's too early to worry about Nissan going under,' said Adam Bernard, principal of consultant Autoperspectives. 'It faces big challenges, but they're not insurmountable.' Automakers are notoriously hard to kill ― and Nissan has assets that startups and newcomers can only dream of, including established dealers across the United States, widespread U.S. manufacturing and engineering facilities and a heritage that includes decades of growth and landmark vehicles, including honest to God icons like the Z and GT-R sports cars. Affordable cars: Nissan defies tariff trends by lowering prices on 2025 Rogue and Pathfinder SUV models 'An $11 billion company that's been around for decades, has a global manufacturing footprint and 1,300 outlets in the United States doesn't just disappear,' said Brian Gordon, president of Dave Cantin Group, which advises dealerships. 'This is not anywhere near the end of the line for Nissan, but maybe the beginning of a new chapter.' Nissan leadership has been ineffective for more than two decades. The automaker was hours from insolvency in 1999, when French-based Renault bought a controlling stake at fire sale prices and installed executive Carlos Ghosn to turn things around. Ghosn succeeded and Nissan became the profit engine for an automaking group that was briefly the world's top seller. It was an uneasy alliance. Nissan executives chafed at being overseen by French management, when the Japanese-based brands sold more vehicles and generated more profit than Renault. The dissatisfaction simmered for years, hampering efforts to combine the automakers fully. It boiled over when insiders charged then CEO Ghosn of financial misdeeds in 2018, leading to his house arrest and a cinematic escape from Japan. Things went from bad to worse under new leadership, which oversaw sliding sales, market share and finances. In December 2024, Nissan and Honda announced a plan to merge, an unlikely alliance widely believed to have been orchestrated by the Japanese government to keep Nissan from falling into foreign ― likely Chinese or Taiwanese ― hands. Nissan backed out of those negotiations in February. The company's prospects remain unclear, but newly named CEO Ivan Espinosa calmed the waters somewhat, instilling new confidence in dealers and revealing a handful of upcoming vehicles to the public recently. Influential Nissan dealer Eric Frehsée is effusive about the changes, which include a number of pricing and distribution changes addressing longstanding dealer complaints. 'There is absolutely nothing to worry about,' the president of the Michigan-based Tamaroff Group, which includes Tamaroff Nissan in Southfield, told me. 'There's not a better time to buy a Nissan than now,' in part because 'everything in our inventory today is tariff-free. 'I'm very confident in the new leadership,' said Frehsée, who has served on Nissan's regional dealer council. 'I know what's in the pipeline.' The recent presentations also pumped up Vinay Shahani, Nissan's U.S. sales boss. 'There's cash in the bank and we're investing in new products,' Shahani said from Nissan's North American HQ in Nashville. 'It's full-speed ahead.' Shahani and Frehsée both stress the breadth of Nissan's model line, with several vehicles priced under $30,000. Nissan also still sells passenger cars at a time many other manufacturers have switched to SUVs. The new vehicles aim to broaden Nissan's choice of powertrains. A paucity of hybrids is among the factors contributing to a 31.7% drop in U.S. Nissan and Infiniti sales since 2019 ― the last "typical" year before the pandemic wreaked havoc on production. The two brands managed just 917,598 sales in 2024, versus 1,343,959 in 2019, according to S&P Global Mobility. 'We're shoring up a deficit in alternative powertrains,' Shahani said. 'America is not a one-size-fits-all market. There's so much diversity and we need to cover it all.' That means Nissan's cornerstone model, the Rogue compact SUV, will add plug-in hybrid models and an unusual "plug-less" electric vehicle system the company calls E-power over the next couple of years. E-power uses a gasoline engine as an onboard generator. The battery never charges from the grid. Other upcoming vehicles will also be developed to accommodate traditional internal combustion, hybrids and E-power. Shahani also believes Nissan's Infiniti luxury brand can grow with the new QX80 and upcoming QX60 large and midsize SUVs, respectively. Nissan's expected to continue negotiations with potential investors. Incoming CEO Espinosa is reported to be more open to new ideas than the old guard. That could include revived talks with Honda; a deal with Taiwan's Foxconn, an accomplished contract manufacturer that would love to become an EV maker, and potentially other companies. Nissan's established brand identity and global footprint will make it attractive to multiple candidates. 'Nissan will survive in one form or another,' S&P Global principal automotive analyst Stephanie Brinley said. 'If you own a Nissan, you'll still be able to get parts for your car. The dealers will still be there. There are protections for customers.' Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@ Follow him on Twitter mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Can Nissan survive the next 5 years? Why experts say the answer is yes Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
