Nissan to cut global production capacity by 20%
- Japanese carmaker Nissan, which has regained some autonomy since Renault's stake in its capital was reduced, has announced that it will cut 9,000 jobs worldwide, accompanied by a 20% reduction in its production capacity. However, last April, Nissan announced that it wanted to sell 4.5 million vehicles worldwide in the 2026/2027 financial year*, compared to 3.2 million in 2022 and 3.3 million in 2023. The 2023/2024 financial year (Japanese fiscal year = from March year n to March year n+1) was extremely poor, with a 7.8% drop in Nissan's production compared to the previous financial year and the situation is even worse in September 2024, with a 9.8% drop.
- Production in Japan was the most affected, with a 13.4% drop compared to last year (-11.8% in September 2024), compared to a 6.4% drop for factories located abroad (-9.3% in September 2024). The carmaker does not expect any improvement in the short term. As a result, Nissan announced that it would once again reduce its production capacity by 20%, which will go from 5.6 million vehicles per year to 4.5 million (compared to 7 million vehicles in 2017/2018). To stay afloat, Nissan will sell 10% of its shares in Mitsubishi Motors, reducing its stake to 24% compared to 34% previously.
- Nissan's difficulties can be explained in part by the constant lack of success of its models and the serious decline observed in China (-15% of sales over 9 months of 2024). We can also wonder about the fact that Nissan, which had been one of the pioneers of the electric vehicle with the Leaf, then let all its competitors take the advantage without any reaction on its part. Inovev believes that the production capacities that will fall to 4.5 million vehicles per year are still too high compared to the situation of the carmaker. It would be appropriate to reduce them again by 20% to set them at 3.6 million vehicles per year, a level that would seem more realistic.