Japanese carmaker Nissan has announced a raft of drastic cost-saving measures to try and turn around its recent financial woes, with at least three factories to be shuttered.
Overnight, Nissan announced its quarterly financial results, which included official confirmation that its proposed merger with fellow Japanese brand Honda was dead – a move which many thought could have aided Nissan.
According to Nissan, its planned cost-saving measures are expected to bring savings of approximately 400 billion Yen ($4.14 billion) by the 2026 Japanese fiscal year.
For context, its operating profit slid from 478.4 billion Yen ($4.69 billion) in April to December 2023 to 64 billion Yen ($663 million) across the same period in 2024. Its net income also dropped by 320.2 billion Yen ($3.3 billion) to 5.1 billion Yen ($52.8 million).
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Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida
To achieve this, 2500 “indirect” employees will be laid off globally, while Nissan projects “100 billion yen in savings by consolidating production lines, adjusting shift patterns, and transferring jobs, starting with three plants in Q1 FY25 (April-June)”.
According to Nissan, that includes two factories in the US (Canton and Smyrna) and one of its two Thailand production lines.
Automotive News reports Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida announced the Thailand factory is the only one of the three confirmed to be closed. Two additional factories will also be shut, though it’s unconfirmed as to which these will be.
While Nissan only has one factory location in Thailand, it technically counts two production lines as separate plants.
One of the two lines produces the Australian-delivered Nissan Navara, as well as the related Terra SUV. A new-generation Nissan Navara is on the horizon, and is set to be twinned with the latest Mitsubishi Triton in a bid to reduce development costs.
Nissan Australia has confirmed to CarExpert the Navara production line (known as Plant 2) won’t be axed, however production of the Almera and Kicks (Plant 1) will be consolidated with the Navara and Terra.
Automotive News added the two US factories will see a reduction in shift changes. No Nissan models sold in Australia come from the Canton plant, however our Pathfinders come from the Smyrna factory.
Last week, Nissan Oceania managing director Andrew Humberstone cast doubt over the future of the Pathfinder in Australia, due to low sales.
The reduction in shifts and reduced output at the factory where it’s built could expedite the Pathfinder’s local demise.
Nissan previously announced it’d reduce its global headcount by 9000 jobs, 6500 of which are now confirmed to come from manufacturing operations.
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Nissan Thailand’s Plant 2
The carmaker repeated it expects to cut global production capacity by 20 per cent from five million vehicles to four million by April 2026.
It’s not just those towards the bottom of the company tree who’ll be impacted, with 20 per cent of Nissan’s management to be cut.
While Automotive News reports some industry experts believe Nissan isn’t doing enough to get itself out of financial dire straits, Uchida-san said further cuts aren’t off the table.
“Can we continue to survive as a standalone company?” Mr Uchida told reporters.
“We’ve been discussing that for some time now. This is a big subject matter. Without taboo, we have to explore all options.”
Despite Nissan’s global struggles, it delivered more cars in Australia during January 2025 than the same month last year.
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