Better days: Carlos Ghosn in the bed of a Nissan Titan during its introduction.
Somewhat lost in the near-daily drumbeat of bad news about Detroit’s Big Three, Japan’s automakers are facing a crisis of their own that’s worsening quite rapidly.
Barely two weeks after revealing its balance sheet will plunge deep into the red for the fiscal year ending March 31st – its first loss in nine years – Nissan has announced plans to eliminate more than half of its U.S. advanced product planning team. A total of 10 out of 19 current spots will be eliminated, according to a spokesman.
It’s unclear precisely what impact that will have, as the team normally is used to provide American market input for the development of vehicles likely not to hit market for at least another five years.
Carlos Ghosn, CEO of both Nissan Motor Co. and its French alliance partner, Renault, has promised that product development programs will be left largely untouched by the company’s urgent cost-cutting efforts, but there’s little doubt that the Japanese maker is looking for ways to reduce the cost of bringing new vehicles to market.
On February 9th, Ghosn announced that Nissan would eliminate bout 20,000 jobs, worldwide, as part of its restructuring. The carmaker had already taken a knife to its U.S. operations, trimming 110 jobs through consolidations of its sales, marketing and design units.
Even before the automotive market took a nose dive, last autumn, Nissan was making significant changes in its operations. It announced plans to shift or eliminate production of several light truck models. That included the Titan, the automaker’s slow-selling full-size pickup. In a surprise move, Nissan revealed plans to have Chrysler produce a replacement for the current Titan, using the same platform as the American maker’s big Dodge Ram pickup. But in recent days, with Chrysler working on a possible strategic alliance with Fiat s.P.a., Nissan has hinted it could scrub the Chrysler project.
Nissan is by no means alone. Toyota, which expects to end the fiscal year with its first deficit in more than a half century, is cutting costs and slashing jobs around the world, as well. Complicating matters for the Japanese: their home market is facing a slump rivaling that of the U.S., with Japanese auto sales currently running at a 35-year-low.