Nissan plans to cut another 10,000 jobs worldwide, Japanese media reported on Monday, bringing the total cuts, including previously announced layoffs, to about 20,000 or 15% of its workforce
The struggling Japanese automaker warned last month it would likely book a record net loss of up to $5.1 billion in the financial year that ended in March due to impairment charges.
Japan's third-biggest automaker, whose mooted merger with Honda collapsed earlier this year, is set to announce its full-year results on Tuesday.
Nissan is looking to make its business leaner and more resilient after doing poorly in its top market, the United States, where its performance suffered heavily from a lack of hybrids and an ageing line-up.
It is also struggling in China, where it is looking to stop a punishing sales slide with the launch of some 10 new vehicles in the coming years.
Nissan, which had more than 133,000 employees as of March last year, had already been looking to slash 9,000 jobs and reduce global capacity by 20%.
The company – one of the top 10 automakers by unit sales – is heavily indebted and engaged in an expensive business restructuring plan.
Its weak performance forced it to cut its profit outlook four times for the financial year that just ended.
Like many peers, Nissan is finding it difficult to compete against home-grown electric vehicle brands in China, while its profits are now under further threat from U.S. trade tariffs.
The possible merger with Japanese rival Honda had been seen as a potential lifeline. But talks crashed in February after Honda proposed making Nissan a subsidiary instead of integrating under a holding firm.
Then last month, Nissan issued a stark profit warning, saying it expects an annual net loss of 700 billion-750 billion yen ($4.8-$5.1 billion) for the 2024-25 financial year.
Its previous worst full-year net loss was 684 billion yen in 1999-2000, during a financial crisis that birthed its rocky partnership with French automaker Renault.
Nissan has since faced more speed bumps– including the 2018 arrest of former boss Carlos Ghosn, who later fled Japan concealed in an audio equipment box.
The automaker, whose shares have tanked nearly 40% over the past year, appointed a new CEO in March.
Ratings agencies have downgraded the firm to junk, with Moody's citing its "weak profitability" and "ageing model portfolio."
And this month, Nissan shelved plans, only recently agreed, to build a $1 billion battery plant in southern Japan owing to the tough "business environment."
An additional headwind is the 25% tariff imposed by President Donald Trump on all imported vehicles into the United States.
Of all Japan's major automakers, Nissan is likely to be the most severely impacted, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Tatsuo Yoshida told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Its clientele has historically been more price-sensitive than that of its rivals, he said.
So the company "can't pass the costs on consumers to the same extent as Toyota or Honda without suffering a significant loss in sales units," he added.
While Nissan's lackluster electric car roster has failed to win over the Chinese market, the company recently announced investments to the tune of 10 billion yuan in the world's second-largest economy.
China's highly competitive EV market is the largest in the world, led by Shenzhen-based carmaker BYD.
One potential solution for Nissan could be Taiwanese electronics behemoth Hon Hai, better known as Foxconn, which assembles iPhones and is expanding into cars.
Foxconn said in February it was open to buying Renault's stake in Nissan, and this month it agreed in principle to develop and supply an EV model to Mitsubishi Motors, an alliance partner of Renault and Nissan.
External help, Yoshida said, is "very much needed" for Nissan, which can no longer differentiate itself from its rivals by making internal efforts to save costs alone.
