Nissan CEO reveals desperate bid to ‘transform’ brand as he admits failure and cries ‘we have to fix ourselves’

NISSAN’S CEO, Ivan Espinosa, has revealed his plans to revive the struggling auto company.

Despite admitting the company’s shortcomings, Espinosa also said he’s focusing on “fixing” the problems at hand to keep the company afloat.

EPA

Nissan’s CEO, Ivan Espinosa, wants to focus on creating a solid foundation for the company[/caption]

The CEO mentioned that while Nissan works to regain its footing among other giant automakers in the industry, his immediate goal is to focus on the present issue.

“I think in the short term, the focus that we have is to fix ourselves,” Espinosa told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

“We are convinced that the plan is enough and robust,” he continued.

Espinosa took over for the company’s former CEO, Makota Uchida, after a long-awaited merger with Honda fell through.

The companies had signed a memorandum of understanding to explore a potential business integration, but disagreements, particularly over the structure of the merger, caused it to fall apart.

While the merger talks ended, both companies stated they would continue to collaborate on electric vehicles and smart car technologies.

The deal was valued at $58 billion, which could have helped Nissan rise through this rough period.

“The size of the task is big,” Espinosa said on Wednesday.

“Our landing was not good in 2024, and thus we have a transformation that has to come. But this is a problem that did not start like two years ago, it’s a fundamental problem that we’re fixing.”

“If you take a step back, eight to 10 years ago, the company had very lofty goals for growth,” he added.

Last month, Nissan’s CEO revealed that the company had expected a 3% drop in sales volume for the current fiscal year, as reported by CNBC.

This comes after the CEO announced significant changes to its production and workforce.

The car manufacturer estimates a roughly $5 billion loss.

The auto manufacturer said it would be axing nearly 15% of its global workforce after a steep decline in vehicle sales, as reported by The Associated Press.

This means about 20,000 employees will be affected by the changes.

Nissan also announced that it would reduce the number of its auto plants to boost performance and build a company that can adapt to the uncertainty of the automotive industry.

There will only be 10 operating auto facilities instead of the former 17.

Still, the automaker has plans to expand its electric vehicle collection to keep up with frontrunners in the EV revolution.

“We are re-sizing the company and this is why we have accelerated our efforts on cost, both fixed cost [and] viable cost,” Espinosa assured.

“So, we have very deep initiatives under our new Re:Nissan plan and we’re devoted to it.”