► Re:Nissan plan announced
► 20,000 jobs and seven plants shuttered
► Freeze on projects until after 2026
Nissan has announced its 2024 financial results, and they are even worse than the ailing company had projected. The company announced a net loss of £3.4bn over the course of 2024 and says 2025 isn’t looking any rosier.
To combat the plunging losses, new CEO Ivan Espinosa – who took over from Makoto Uchida who stepped down in the wake of the failed merger with Honda – has initiated the Re:Nissan plan. The aim is for the company to become profitable again after the 2026 financial year.
‘As new management, we are taking a prudent approach to reassess our targets and actively seek every possible opportunity to implement and ensure a robust recovery,’ says Espinosa. ‘Re:Nissan is an action-based recovery plan clearly outlines what we need to do now. All employees are committed to working together as a team to implement this plan, with the goal of returning to profitability by fiscal year 2026.’
However, to do that, Nissan is undergoing a transition perhaps never seen by the company before, including sweeping job losses and facility closures. Nissan says it has introduced an ‘aggressive cost reduction’ target of £1.2bn by FY2026.
The biggest news is the loss of a total of 20,000 jobs worldwide – 11,000 more than initially announced – including in areas like manufacturing, administrative and R&D. The brand has also confirmed it will ‘consolidate its vehicle production’ by closing seven manufacturing plants (down to 10) by 2027. Given the investments and new models (like the new Leaf and next-generation Juke) being manufactured at Nissan’s plant in Sunderland in the UK, this will not be included in the closures.
Other areas of savings include reducing parts complexity and the amount of car platforms the brand uses, reducing the range from 13 down to seven. It also aims to shorten development time to get new models to market faster, including the next-generation Skyline. For Europe, Nissan will lean even more on its Renault partner to help develop and engineer new models – as well as focus on building more B and C-segment SUVs.
That said, the brand has also confirmed it ‘will temporarily pause advanced and post-FY26 product activities to mobilise 3,000 people to focus on cost reduction initiatives,’ meaning all future car projects that aren’t in the pre-production stage have been frozen.
With these drastic plans in place, Espinosa and the brand’s accountants hope to save around £2.5bn in total.
Jake has been an automotive journalist since 2015, joining CAR as Staff Writer in 2017. With a decade of car news and reviews writing under his belt, he became CAR's Deputy News Editor in 2020 and then News Editor in 2025. Jake's day-to-day role includes co-ordinating CAR's news content across its print, digital and social media channels. When he's not out interviewing an executive, driving a new car for review or on a photoshoot for a CAR feature, he's usually found geeking out on the latest video game, buying yet another pair of wildly-coloured trainers or figuring out where he can put another car-shaped Lego set in his already-full house.
By Jake Groves
CAR's news editor; gamer, trainer freak and serial Lego-ist