Japanese automaker Nissan is cutting 9,000 jobs because its vehicles aren’t selling

TOKYO (AP) – Nissan reported a loss for its most recent fiscal quarter on Thursday as vehicle sales fell while costs and inventories soared, prompting the Japanese automaker to cut 9,000 jobs.

Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said he was taking a 50% pay cut to take responsibility for the dismal results, but promised a turnaround was coming.

Nissan Motor Corp. announced a global workforce reduction of 9,000 people, or about 6% of its more than 133,000 employees, and a plan to cut global production capacity by 20%.

Uchida declined to say which regions will be affected by the cuts or provide details.

In its latest quarter through September, Nissan posted a loss of 9.3 billion yen ($60 million), a reversal from a profit of 190.7 billion yen in the same quarter last year.

Quarterly revenue fell to 2.9 trillion yen ($19 billion) from 3.1 trillion yen.

Uchida acknowledged that Nissan had not responded quickly or flexibly enough to global changes, including market tastes and rising raw material costs.

“I take this situation very seriously,” he told reporters. “Nissan will restructure its business to become leaner and more resilient.”

Nissan models did not sell well in the United States, one of the world’s most lucrative auto markets, recently dominated by Ford, Toyota and Tesla.

All aspects of Nissan’s operations and plans are being reviewed, Uchida said.

Nissan, based in the port city of Yokohama, reported first-half sales of 5.98 trillion yen ($39 billion), down 1% from more than 6 trillion yen in the same period last year.

Profits totaled 19.2 billion yen ($124 million) from April to September, down sharply from the 296.2 billion yen made in the six months last year.

Nissan cut its revenue forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2025 to 12.7 trillion yen ($82 billion) from an earlier forecast of 14 trillion yen ($91 billion).

A net profit forecast was not provided due to the uncertainty. It promised to provide a profit forecast as soon as possible. Nissan had previously forecast annual profit of 300 billion yen ($1.9 billion).

Nissan now expects to sell 3.4 million vehicles worldwide in the fiscal year ending March 2025, compared to previously forecast 3.65 million vehicles. The new figure is roughly in line with what Nissan sold in the last fiscal year.

Nissan said it will appoint a chief performance officer tasked with making turnaround decisions and who will start the job next month.

Given the poor results, no dividend will be paid.

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Yuri Kageyama is on X: