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Nissan faces up to “five” simultaneous crises, including low morale, a damaged brand and the execution of a sweeping turnaround, according to the incoming chief executive of the struggling Japanese carmaker.
Ahead of officially taking over the top job on April 1, Ivan Espinosa, the 46-year-old product planning head, outlined his plans this week to revamp the company’s outdated line-up in a bid to stem falling sales.
He said there were “no taboos” around options for future partners to fill gaps in its car portfolio, which includes the Leaf, Rogue and Micra, and to help Nissan compete with industry heavyweights and software-savvy Chinese rivals.
“The way we are seeing partners is broadly, not only thinking about cars but how to push Nissan into the next era of technology,” Espinosa said at a company event at its technical centre in Atsugi. “For me, the future of the industry is about intelligent cars.
“What are the partners we should be thinking about? You have traditional [original equipment manufacturers] . . . but there’s another avenue, which is who should you partner with to develop this intelligent car.”
His comments came weeks after the collapse of $58bn merger talks between Nissan and rival Honda, which were originally prompted by Taiwanese iPhone manufacturer Foxconn making approaches about taking a stake in Nissan. Amid the turmoil, the board called time on Makoto Uchida, the chief executive since 2019.
The spectacular rise of Chinese electric-vehicle competitors, a series of unpopular products and a brand-damaging push to discount cars that were not selling had led Nissan sales to fall from 5.5mn in 2018 to 3.3mn in 2024.
Unlike other CEOs who usually face one or two crises during their tenure, Espinosa said he expected to deal with “four or five at the same time”, citing the restructuring, a “deep morale” crisis, transformational work and negative public perceptions of the company.
In a bid to plug key gaps in its portfolio and overhaul its reputation with consumers, Nissan unveiled plans on Wednesday to launch the third generation of its iconic Leaf EV globally and its first plug-in hybrid in North America, the compact Rogue sport utility vehicle. Many other new and refreshed models were announced for release in most regions of the world over the next couple of years.
Nissan’s lack of hybrids has been a gaping hole in the US that Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda have exploited. The group aims to address that by delivering US cars with its “e-power” technology — a motor powered by an engine that drives like an EV — from 2026.
In China, where Nissan sales have halved to less than 700,000 cars in just four years, the group’s strategy is pivoting to support global exports of Chinese EVs co-developed with local joint venture partners.
“In China, there’s a new dynamic,” said Guillaume Cartier, Nissan’s chief performance officer. “In terms of an accessible market for non-Chinese brands, it’s decreasing. We also look to China as a platform to export.”
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on cars and goods from Mexico from April 2 could be felt severely by crisis-stricken Nissan.
Among car companies, it has one of the highest exposures and a low ability to absorb extra costs, according to analysts.
For Espinosa, delivering and deepening a turnaround plan that involves cutting 9,000 jobs and 20 per cent of production capacity is the top priority. But the self-described car lover also wants to accelerate the pace of bringing new vehicles to market.
The Mexican chief is targeting a cut in development times for new models from 55 months to 37 months to help Nissan keep pace with rapid innovation at Chinese rivals.
“We are slow and this is one of the things we have to fix,” he said. “The market has become very dynamic.”
