Nissan can’t seem to catch a break. The company is in a tough spot trying to navigate multiple issues, such as untangling from Renault, taking on tough competition, looking for other partners, and trying to do all this before running out of money. The last of those issues just got a bit worse. While the complete earnings report won’t come out until next month, Nissan announced that it’s expecting its already sub-par 2024 fiscal year to actually be worse.
Nissan
Nissan Motor Corporation is a Japanese automaker founded in 1933 and the parent automaker of Infiniti and formerly Datsun. Nissan produces a wide variety of mass-market vehicles, including popular SUVs like the Rogue, sedans like the Sentra, and trucks like the Nissan Frontier, but is also responsible for iconic sports cars like the Nissan Z and GT-R. Since 1999, Nissan has been part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance (the name changed when Mitsubishi joined in 2016).
- Founded
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26 December 1933
- Founder
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Yoshisuke Aikawa
- Headquarters
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Nishi-ku, Yokohama
- Owned By
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Publicly Traded
- Current CEO
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Ivan Espinosa (as of 1 April, 2025)
Losing Money And Making Fewer Profits
Nissan’s revised earnings expectations look grim. It was expecting to lose around $560.7 million over the year. That has been changed to between $4.9 and $5.3 billion. Additionally, operating profits are looking worse than expected at around $595.8 million as opposed to $841.1 million. Those are terrifying numbers to see, and most definitely not sustainable.
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With that said, Nissan still has some breathing room. In the same announcement, it also noted that it still has plenty of liquidity with around $23.8 billion available. About $15.4 billion of that is cash on hand. It’s not an especially long runway, but it’s something.
The Obstacles Ahead And Some Hope
Nissan provided a little bit of explanation for the reduction in expected profits and expansion of expected losses. It cited that competition is getting tougher, and it’s still struggling to get sales up globally. As for the losses, it pointed to major investments to fix these issues. Nissan does seem to have ambitious plans to become competitive again. For the US, it’s launching a new Leaf, introducing hybrids, and has an electric “adventure” SUV in the works that could easily revive the much-loved Xterra name. Infiniti has new products in the works, too, and Nissan has other new products for other markets prepared, too.
The current line-up, at least in the US, is showing some promising signs. Its affordable models are proving popular, and they helped the automaker actually see better sales in North America in 2024 than in 2023. They may be threatened by tariffs, but other popular Nissan models, such as the top-selling Rogue, are built in the US, offering some insulation from those effects. The addition of hybrids should also help improve sales.
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We’re also impressed by Nissan’s choice of a new CEO. Ivan Espinosa has been with Nissan for years, and he really knows cars and the car business. He seems to be willing to move quickly and make big decisions, as opposed to the previous conservative leadership.
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There’s no question that Nissan still faces large hurdles. As previously mentioned, it’s still working on pulling away from Renault. It recently came to an agreement with the automaker to reduce the amount of stock each company is required to hold to maintain the alliance. This would give Nissan the ability to sell off a bit more Renault stock for cash, and could also make it so that Renault might also let go of some stock in Nissan. Nissan also continues to face increased competition and investment costs, which could still require a different partnership. That could involve reopening talks with Honda, or possibly another company such as Foxconn. Still, as bad as the situation looks for Nissan, we feel it still has a solid chance of getting through it.
