- Nissan’s boss believes aggressive sales targets hurt quality.
- The new plan is to stop relying so much on rental-car sales.
- Nissan aims to bounce back by improving quality and rolling out new models.
A little over a year into his job, Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa has been making sweeping changes at the troubled Japanese automaker. A massive cost-cutting plan is underway, calling for the elimination of around 20,000 jobs and the closure of seven factories and two design studios. The company is also significantly reducing annual production capacity from 3.5 million to 2.5 million units and cutting the number of platforms from 13 to just 7.
The Re:Nissan recovery plan also calls for bringing new vehicles to market much sooner than before. Under the new strategy, development time for next-generation models will drop from 52 to 37 months, while subsequent derivatives will go from 50 to 30 months. Perhaps the most important element of the recovery effort is renewing the lineup by rolling out a myriad of models across the core Nissan brand and the Infiniti luxury division.
While these actions aim to pave the way for a better future, Espinosa is also looking back at what went wrong. In an interview with Reuters, he didn’t mince words, saying Nissan’s heavy reliance on rental-car sales in the United States backfired. The company once prioritized sales volume above all else, but that strategy ultimately hurt Nissan’s image:
Photo by: Nissan
‘Before, it was like, okay, we want, volume, volume, volume. This is not a good way of operating a car company.’
Nissan Has Many New Models On The Way
Nissan’s leadership now acknowledges that aggressively chasing volume cheapened the brand because of its association with rental fleets. In the future, Espinosa said he would prefer Nissan to “stay away” from the rental-car market as part of an effort to repair its battered reputation. CEO and President since April 2025, the 47-year-old Mexican executive wants to put Nissan back on track in North America by renewing the lineup and improving quality.
Looking ahead, there are reasons to be optimistic. The Xterra is officially returning as a body-on-frame SUV with a tentative starting price below $40,000, according to Nissan Americas chairman Christian Meunier. It’s unlikely to go on sale before the 2028 model year and will offer both an already confirmed V6 gas engine and a V6 hybrid setup.
Meanwhile, Japan’s new Skyline will be officially revealed this winter and will subsequently spawn an upscale Infiniti counterpart for North America. Elsewhere in the lineup, the Rogue Hybrid E-Power is coming for the 2027 model year as a range-extending EV, with a small turbocharged three-cylinder engine generating electricity while electric motors drive the wheels.
Motor1’s Take: A lot is happening at Nissan these days, and we didn’t even mention the likely tie-up with Honda after the two companies failed to merge last year. Espinosa appears to be a man of action and also an enthusiast who daily drives a Z. He has also spoken about bringing back the Silvia and the GT-R, giving sports-car fans plenty to look forward to.
Nissan seems to be doing many of the right things to become a leaner and more competitive automaker. It’s launching a plethora of new products, eliminating underperforming models, speeding up development, and implementing drastic but necessary cost-cutting measures. The results of these structural changes won’t appear overnight; it will likely take a few years to determine whether Nissan has made the right moves.
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