Nissan Motor will soon slash another 11,000 jobs amid falling demand and restructuring costs. The announcement came weeks after the struggling Japanese carmaker warned it would likely book a record 700 billion yen to 750 billion yen ($4.74 billion to $5.08 billion) net loss in the recently concluded financial year due to impairment charges. The company had previously indicated plans to fire around 9000 people from its global workforce in November 2024 after weak sales in the US and China led to a 94% drop in first-half net sales.
Reports indicate that the situation has worsened for Nissan since the initial layoff announcement in November. Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported on Monday that the company would now eliminate around 11,000 more jobs than initially planned — bringing the total cuts to around 20,000 or 15% of its entire workforce.
Meanwhile a Nikkei report from Friday indicates that the company is also planning to offer early retirement to several hundred people holding administrative roles in Japan. This would be its first attempt to shed workers through early retirement in 18 years.
Nissan had also reported earlier on Friday that it would be abandoning plans to build a $1.1 billion factory for electric vehicle batteries on the Japanese island of Kyushu. Plans for a lithium iron phosphate battery plant had been announced in January with supply slated to start in July 2028 or later. It would have created about 500 jobs with an investment of 153.3 billion yen ($1.05 billion). The Japanese government had also earmarked a subsidy up to 55.7 billion yen for the project.
The company is set to provide its outlook for the current financial year and update on its recovery actions when it announces full-year financial results on Tuesday. The company has recently announced plans to shed employees, reduce production capacity and close plants as new CEO Ivan Espinosa (who took over from Makoto Uchida executive last month) attempts to restructure operations.