Nissan has had a rough year, but CEO Ivan Espinosa is optimistic that 2026 could see things change for the better. He recently said that he anticipates flat sales overall in 2025, but improvement over the ensuing 12 months, driven by vehicles such as the Rogue crossover, Sentra four-door, and the big Armada SUV.
From Automotive News, which interviewed Espinosa at Nissan’s HQ in Yokohama, Japan:
“Next year we should be in a position to grow our sales,” Espinosa said….”The fact that we have these new product lines coming in and having a full blast next year is definitely something that’s going to help.”
Espinosa went on to describe a “second gear” in his plan, “a pivot from cost cutting and factory closures to growth based on product and technology.” But Automotive News pointed out that Nissan sales in the U.S. have fallen precipitously since 2017: from a total of 1.6 million vehicles to just over 924,000 in 2024. And of course that HQ building that Espinosa was sitting in for the interview was just sold as part of his effort to restore Nissan’s mojo.
All the right moves
Regardless of how you feel about Nissan’s decline from its glory days under Carlos Ghosn – the now-disgraced executive who masterminded the Renault-Nissan alliance before running afoul of the Japanese authorities and staging a dramatic escape to Lebanon – Espinosa is following an effective turnaround playbook. The company’s unsuccessful merger with Honda from earlier this year made Espinosa’s moves imperative. They’re heavy-duty, as well: shuttering seven factories worldwide and shedding upwards of three million vehicles in annual manufacturing capacity by 2028, Automotive News reported.
Some developments in the U.S. market could help Nissan and Espinosa. Slowing EV sales and the end of federal tax credits have made automakers shift back to combustion powertrains, so Nissan is talking about rolling out more hybrids. Espinosa speculated on the possibility of a hybrid pickup with a V6, for example. It also sounds like Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury marque, isn’t going anywhere. Despite being an EV pioneer with the Leaf, not having to aggressively invest in multiple powertrain offerings – all-gas, hybrid, and electric – is probably going to give Nissan some urgently needed breathing room.
Far from out of the woods
Nissan’s market share has dipped below six percent in the U.S., and given Espinosa’s goals of streamlining operations and reducing the company’s footprint, it’s not surprising to hear him talk about the improving quality of the sales the company is making. This has been a theme in the industry for a while now. Whereas market share in the U.S. – an exceptionally competitive environment – once represented strength, in the past 15 or so years, carmakers have sought to make profitability more important. Espinosa needs to get more out of the share he has, and if his turnaround is successful, Nissan will likely settle into being a reduced version of itself for the second half the decade. In some ways, this is a great chance for Espinosa to make his bones as new kind of 21st-century executive. If Ghosn and the likes of former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares – not to mention the late Sergio Marchionne of FCA – were empire builders, the Espinosa could be remembered as an empire un-builder. A skilled manager of industrial decline.
