Tag Archives: Nissan

News

Nissan’s Balancing Act: Bruised, But Back on Its Feet

If the auto industry were a boxing match, Nissan’s first half of fiscal 2025 would be that brutal middle round where the fighter’s on the ropes — gloves up, bruised, but still in the fight. The Yokohama heavyweight just reported a 27.7-billion-yen operating loss on revenues of 5.6 trillion yen. It’s not pretty, but there’s fight in this one yet.

The Numbers: Blood, Sweat, and Yen

Between April and September 2025, Nissan shifted 1.48 million cars globally. That’s a lot of metal, but not enough to keep the balance sheet in the black. Compared to last year, revenue slipped by 405 billion yen, and the operating margin swung from a modest +0.5% to a worrying -0.5%.

Blame part of that on tariffs, foreign exchange turbulence (JPY 146/USD, JPY 168/EUR), and some painful accounting for its Chinese joint venture. The net result? A thumping 221.9-billion-yen loss, largely thanks to impairments and restructuring costs.

Still, the financial scaffolding’s holding up — 3.6 trillion yen in liquidity and a beefy 2.2 trillion in cash give Nissan breathing room. Think of it as a solid roll cage after a high-speed spin.

A Tale of Two Quarters

Look closer, and there’s a flicker of good news. The second quarter actually delivered an operating profit — 51.5 billion yen — an improvement of nearly 20 billion year-on-year. That’s no small feat in today’s brutal automotive landscape, where semiconductor prices, logistics, and tariffs bite harder than a GT-R launch control.

Net income was still negative, but directionally, it’s progress — a sign the Re:Nissan turnaround plan might be starting to grip.

Re:Nissan: The Makeover in Motion

Nissan’s comeback strategy, poetically titled Re:Nissan, is now moving into second gear. The company claims it’s already achieved over 80 billion yen in fixed-cost reductions and aims to exceed 150 billion by year’s end.

That’s not all. The brand’s aiming for a 20% improvement in engineering efficiency — already 12% there — and slashing parts complexity across its lineup. Less overlap, more precision. It’s the corporate equivalent of a weight-reduction program before track day.

And then there’s the bold real estate move: Nissan’s selling its global HQ in Yokohama, only to lease it back for 20 years. It sounds dramatic, but the cash infusion will fund modernization and, frankly, it shows a company serious about leaner, meaner operations.

Eyes on 2026

The goal? Breakeven operating profit excluding U.S. tariff impacts this year, and a clean return to the black by fiscal 2026. With 200 billion yen in identified variable-cost savings and a fresh pipeline of models, the outlook’s more promising than the current P&L might suggest.

Ivan Espinosa, Nissan’s CEO, put it plainly: “We face challenges, but we are firmly on the path to recovery.” And with momentum building behind new-gen cars like the LEAF and Roox — and more EVs, hybrids, and possibly some spicy N-badged specials in the pipeline — the optimism might just be justified.

Nissan’s story right now isn’t about victory laps — it’s about endurance. The bruises are real, but so is the resolve. Under the Re:Nissan plan, the company’s doing what TopGear loves best: tearing something down and rebuilding it stronger, lighter, and faster.

The road to 2026 won’t be smooth. But if Nissan can stay the course — cutting fat, launching fresh metal, and proving that Japanese engineering still knows how to thrill — then this could be the comeback drive of the decade.

Source: Nissan

News

Nissan’s COMPAS Plant to Shut Down as Automaker Tightens Global Operations

Nissan’s global restructuring plan is claiming another victim. Earlier this year, the automaker announced it would shutter its CIVAC plant in Cuernavaca, Mexico, consolidating production at its Aguascalientes facilities. Now, the company’s joint-venture COMPAS plant in Aguascalientes—the one it shares with Mercedes-Benz—is also on borrowed time.

Brian Brockman, Nissan’s vice president of communications for the Americas, confirmed to Wards Auto that the COMPAS plant will close “in the near future.” While he stopped short of giving a specific date, production of the Infiniti QX50 and QX55 will wrap up this November. Mercedes-Benz, however, will keep the lights on a bit longer, continuing to assemble the GLB until May 2026.

It’s an unceremonious end for a factory that was once a symbol of collaboration. Opened in 2017, the COMPAS (Cooperation Manufacturing Plant Aguascalientes) facility was a high-profile joint venture between Nissan and Mercedes, envisioned as a flexible manufacturing hub for both brands’ compact luxury crossovers and sedans. But the partnership gradually unraveled as the Infiniti models failed to gain traction and Mercedes quietly pulled the plug on the A-Class in the U.S. market.

Sales numbers tell the story: through the first nine months of the year, Infiniti managed to sell just 4,994 QX50s in the United States—a drop of 36.6 percent compared to last year. The QX55, the sleeker coupe sibling, found only 1,931 buyers. Those figures hardly justify a dedicated assembly line.

According to Brockman, the closure “is part of a previously announced plan and reflects broader strategic shifts within the company.” That’s corporate shorthand for Nissan’s Re:Nissan recovery plan, a multi-year restructuring effort aimed at reducing global capacity and tightening the company’s focus. The initiative has already led to the closure of the Oppama plant in Japan and could claim up to seven manufacturing facilities worldwide.

The math is simple but brutal: Nissan wants to trim annual production capacity from 3.5 million vehicles to around 2.5 million while pushing factory utilization to near 100 percent. Fewer plants, but fuller ones.

The timing, however, is rough. Nissan recently revised its financial outlook for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026, painting a picture of cautious progress amid continued turbulence. The company now expects an operating loss of ¥30 billion ($195 million) for the first half of the year—a major improvement from earlier forecasts of a ¥180 billion ($1.17 billion) shortfall. But the full-year outlook remains grim: projected revenues of ¥11.7 trillion ($76 billion) paired with a net loss of ¥275 billion ($1.79 billion).

The company cites the usual suspects—supply chain disruptions, currency fluctuations, tariffs, and geopolitical uncertainty—as key headwinds.

For Infiniti, the end of production at COMPAS leaves big questions about its future manufacturing footprint. The brand has struggled for years to define its identity and justify its existence in a crowded luxury segment increasingly dominated by German and Korean rivals. With the QX50 and QX55 gone, Infiniti’s lineup looks thinner than ever.

As the COMPAS plant winds down, it’s hard not to see it as a cautionary tale: a bold alliance between two automakers that promised synergy but delivered little more than shared losses.

Source: Nissan, Wards Auto

NEW CARS

The Nissan Patrol Returns to the Spotlight at SEMA

Nissan’s booth at this year’s SEMA show has something we didn’t expect to see: the word Patrol. That’s right—the nameplate Nissan USA spent years politely ignoring is suddenly front and center, plastered on not one but two heavily modified off-road builds. For a vehicle Americans were never officially allowed to buy, the Patrol sure knows how to make a comeback.

For the uninitiated, the Nissan Patrol has long been Japan’s answer to the Toyota Land Cruiser. It debuted in 1951 and quickly became a global go-anywhere legend—everywhere except here. U.S. buyers only got a taste in 2017, when Nissan’s second-generation Armada quietly revealed itself to be little more than a rebadged Y62 Patrol. Same bones, different passport.

But now, at SEMA, Nissan’s pulling back the curtain. The company brought two very different takes on the Patrol spirit: a modern off-road support rig and a classic restomod monster.

Nissan Dune Patrol: Luxury Meets the Sandblaster

The first is the Nissan Dune Patrol, which Nissan describes as “the ultimate, ultra-comfortable support vehicle for the most extreme off-road events.” Translation: it’s built to hit the dunes hard without turning your spine into gravel.

Underneath, the Dune Patrol packs serious hardware—custom long-travel suspension bits including control arms, spindles, shock towers, and drive axles, all working with Bilstein-based coil-overs. None of it’s off-the-shelf, but that’s SEMA for you.

The good news? The truck is also a preview of what might come to Nissan’s NISMO accessories catalog. Among the prototype parts are high-clearance bumpers with LED driving lights, tow shackles, rock sliders, a low-profile roof rack with integrated storage boxes, and a NISMO cat-back exhaust. Inside, you’ll find a smattering of catalog-ready add-ons: floor mats, scuff guards, and seatback organizers—proof that Nissan’s thinking about practicality along with playtime.

Fosberg Racing Patrol: A 1,000-Horsepower Time Machine

If the Dune Patrol is about refinement, the Fosberg Racing Patrol is pure chaos. Based on a classic 1990 Y60-generation Patrol, this build is a love letter to old-school overlanding—with a dose of modern lunacy.

The chassis rides on a NISMO off-road suspension and 17-inch beadlock wheels wrapped in 35-inch Yokohama tires. Up top sits a Fosberg light bar bristling with NISMO LEDs. Inside, there’s no mistaking its racing intent: Recaro buckets, a quick-release steering wheel, and minimal creature comforts.

Forsberg Racing’s 1000-HP Nissan Patrol Steals the SEMA Spotlight

Then there’s the engine. The heart of this beast is a TB48 4.8-liter inline-six—an engine from the later Y61 Patrols—taken from a humble 248 horsepower to a wild 1,000 horsepower, courtesy of a Garrett Motion G42-1200 turbocharger. Best of all, Fosberg left the manual transmission intact. A thousand horses, three pedals, and solid axles? That’s the good kind of insanity.

The Return of a Legend

It’s refreshing to see Nissan embracing the Patrol name in the U.S.—even if only at a show like SEMA. Between the dune-bashing comfort rig and the turbocharged throwback, Nissan’s message is clear: the Patrol still has the chops to compete with the world’s toughest 4x4s.

You can see both trucks—alongside the latest Nissan Frontier and the Fosberg Racing NISMO GT-Z—at this year’s SEMA show. Whether you’re into factory-backed tech or old-school firepower, these builds prove one thing: the Patrol is no longer pretending to be an Armada.

Source: Nissan