New Delhi: Nissan Motor, the well-known Japanese car company, is planning to cut around 20,000 jobs across the world, as reported by several news sources. This is a much bigger number than the 9,000 job cuts they had announced back in November 2024. The reason behind this major step is that the company is going through tough times with low sales and huge financial problems.
What Went Wrong?
Nissan’s financial issues started becoming very serious last year. In the first half of the year, their net income dropped by 94%, mostly because their cars weren’t selling well in countries like the United States and China. In November, Nissan said it would cut 9,000 jobs, reduce car production by 20%, and lower its profit targets. But now, things have gotten even worse.
NHK, a popular news channel in Japan, was the first to say that Nissan is now cutting around 20,000 jobs, which is about 15% of all the people working for the company worldwide. This includes both workers in Japan and other countries. When asked about it, Nissan did not give any comments.
Nissan’s money problems are growing fast. Last month, they told their investors that they might lose up to 750 billion yen (about $6.6 billion) in this financial year, ending in March 2025. Most of this loss is because of the costs involved in changing the way the company works. Also, they have a lot of debt to pay back, with $1.6 billion due this year and another $5.6 billion by 2026. This is the highest debt Nissan has had since 1996.
Merger with Honda failed
Nissan’s problems are not just about money. In December, they had signed a deal with Honda to join together under one holding company, which could have made them one of the biggest car companies in the world. But this deal did not work out because the two companies couldn’t agree on who would have more control. The plan was cancelled in February 2025.
Even though the full merger didn’t happen, Nissan and Honda still plan to work together on electric cars and batteries, so there’s a chance they might do something together in the future.
Nissan is also behind in the race when it comes to hybrid vehicles, which are very popular in many countries now. This is making it hard for them to compete with other car companies. Plus, ever since their former boss Carlos Ghosn got arrested in 2018, the company has seen a lot of management problems.
Another issue was the extra taxes put by former US President Donald Trump on cars and car parts coming into the US. These taxes made Nissan lose even more money.
New CEO, Tough Job
Now, the new CEO Ivan Espinosa, who took over in April 2025, has a really tough job ahead. He is expected to talk more about the job cuts and maybe even plant closures when Nissan shares its financial results on May 13.
