Nissan Motor will ramp up exports of China‑developed models to better compete with domestic Chinese automakers, CEO Ivan Espinosa told CNBC on Wednesday.
The export initiative follows intensifying competition in the world’s largest automotive market, which prompted Nissan to slash its annual sales projection for the second time in recent months.
Espinosa indicated that Nissan would swiftly expand exports of China‑developed vehicles from two to five models, aiming at 12 regional market clusters in the “very near term.”
The Japanese automaker is responding to heightened competition in China by tailoring vehicles to Chinese consumers, leveraging local technology, lower costs, and faster development cycles, he said.
“We can defend ourselves from these very aggressive players by using exactly the same elements they have: speed, cost, and good technology,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”
China headwinds
Nissan confronts weakening demand and a faster‑than‑expected shift to electric vehicles in China, while its restructuring initiatives show progress in the U.S. and Japan.
On Wednesday, Nissan lowered its global sales forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2027 to 2.97‑3.0 million vehicles, down from the prior 3.15 million, while keeping its full‑year operating profit and net cash targets unchanged.
In China, the company said, “weaker demand, a faster‑than‑anticipated shift to new energy vehicles, and intensifying competition are creating greater sales pressure than expected.”
In August, Nissan trimmed its full‑year sales target from 3.3 million units to 3.15 million units.
In October, Volvo Cars shares plummeted after the automaker reported a swing to operating loss, citing challenging market conditions in China and the U.S. Volvo’s CEO, Håkan Samuelsson, told CNBC that the company needed a new China strategy focused on regionally adapted vehicles.
“The rapid change in the Chinese market shows that selling global cars developed in Europe and China no longer works, affecting all Western players,” Samuelsson noted.
On Wednesday, Nissan disclosed a 96% plunge in second‑quarter operating profit to 2.1 billion yen (US$13 million), far below the FactSet‑consensus estimate of 54.9 billion yen.
The decline was attributed to the loss of lower U.S. emissions‑related expense benefits that had bolstered profits a year earlier, the company explained.
Net revenue rose 8.2% to 3.1 trillion yen for the quarter, aligning closely with consensus estimates.
The results were released after the Tokyo market closed, with shares slipping 29% year‑to‑date.
Espinosa, who has been at the helm since April 2025, also highlighted progress on a turnaround plan aimed at shrinking the company’s global manufacturing footprint and trimming the workforce by 15%. Roughly 18 months into the initiative, Nissan has realized 365 billion yen in savings, he said.
