Nissan is getting ready for a big shift. Makoto Uchida, who’s been running things since 2019, will leave on April 1. In his place comes Ivan Espinosa, a longtime Nissan insider who’s been with the company for about 20 years. This will make him the fourth CEO at Nissan in the past eight years. The timing’s tricky. Nissan has struggled with slow sales, ended its merger talks with Honda, and faces new tariff worries in the US. The brand’s almost 100 years old, and it’s already in the middle of an overhaul. Board Chair Yasushi Kimura admits it won’t be easy for Espinosa, saying a fresh leadership team is needed because of broad industry challenges and Nissan’s own performance. Uchida isn’t alone in leaving. Chief Brand and Customer Officer Asako Hoshino and Chief Strategy and Corporate Affairs Officer Hideaki Watanabe also plan to step down that same day. Read More The Taycan Turbo GT is Now the Quickest Electric Car at Interlagos A Leader Facing Big Shifts When Makoto Uchida stepped in as CEO in 2019, the company was already in crisis. His predecessor lasted less than a year, and before that, Nissan was still dealing with the fallout from Carlos Ghosn’s dramatic exit. At first, it looked like he might turn things around. He reworked Nissan’s alliance with Renault and shifted the company’s focus from chasing sales through discounts to actually making a profit. It worked for a while. A post-pandemic surge in demand and a favorable exchange rate helped Nissan pull in solid numbers in 2022 and 2023. Then reality set in. Nissan’s lineup was getting old. Customers in key markets, especially China, were shifting to electric vehicles, and Nissan wasn’t keeping up. In just nine months, sales in China dropped 9%. It wasn’t just China—Nissan’s struggles were piling up everywhere, forcing the company to lower its profit outlook three times. By November, Uchida admitted the company had miscalculated. He announced a plan to cut production and eliminate thousands of jobs, taking a 50% pay cut himself as a sign of responsibility. By the end of 2024, Nissan’s profits had collapsed. The company reported a 78% drop in operating profit for Q3 and a net loss of 14.1 billion yen ($95.7 million), a sharp reversal from the 29.1 billion yen profit a year earlier. Nissan Left Adrift After Honda Deal Falls Apart Nissan thought it had found a way forward. Talks with Honda, which could have created one of the world’s largest auto groups, collapsed in less than two months. Nissan refused to become a subsidiary, and just like that, the deal was dead. On the same day the failed merger was announced, Nissan reported a near 90% drop in operating profit, falling to $435 million for the nine months ending in December. Read More This Low-Mileage 1989 Ruf CTR Yellowbird Just Set a $6 Million Auction Record Makoto Uchida, who had spent years trying to steer Nissan back on course, was out of time. “I deeply regret that I had to pass the baton to my successor in these circumstances,” he said. Now, it’s Ivan Espinosa’s problem. He steps in as CEO with no clear roadmap and plenty of fires to put out. Nissan’s lineup is struggling, the EV shift is proving tougher than expected, and new US tariffs could hit hard. One in three Nissan vehicles sold in the US comes from Mexico, making trade policies a looming threat. At an unexpectedly rushed press conference, Espinosa had little to say about his plan, admitting he had just been informed of the board’s decision. “What I do know is that Nissan has so much more potential than what we are seeing today,” he said. As for a second shot at merging with Honda? Espinosa wasn’t ready to answer that question. Right now, his job is keeping Nissan from falling further behind. Source: Nissan
