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^^^
That isn't that terrible, but it seems rather unusual for all vehicles sold to a given country for several years to be ALL recalled.

Nissan suspected of forging inspection documents: reports:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/nissan-suspected-forging-inspection-documents-reports-051559889.html

The below has a clickbait title. I'm not sure the language about the inspection in the article constitutes a "raid".
https://www.autoblog.com/2017/10/04/japan-transport-ministry-raids-two-nissan-plants/
 
Nissan gets approval to expand Tennessee battery plant:
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1113266_nissan-gets-approval-to-expand-tennessee-battery-plant

Weird, in light of the planned sale of the AESC JV to the Chinese (GSR Capital). Perhaps the latter wants the expansion and they figure this is a way of having it done more quickly/ahead of time?
 
="cwerdna"
That isn't that terrible, but it seems rather unusual for all vehicles sold to a given country for several years to be ALL recalled.

Nissan suspected of forging inspection documents: reports...
Today's news indicates Nissan has a big problem.

But the underlying question in my mind is, why are uncertified vehicle inspectors good enough for export markets, but not for JDM sales?

Nissan to suspend domestic production of cars for Japan market

Japan’s second-largest automaker said it would stop production of domestic market vehicles at all six of its Japanese plants to reconfigure their inspection lines.

That came after Nissan admitted uncertified technicians had continued to perform final vehicle checks even after it had said it had strengthened control of its inspection processes when the issue first came to light late last month....

Japan’s transport ministry said this month it had discovered that uncertified technicians at plants producing Nissan vehicles were using the stamps of certified technicians to sign off on final vehicle inspections, in violation of ministry guidelines.

As a result, Nissan has recalled vehicles to re-do final inspections on issues including steering radius and braking and acceleration capabilities, at a cost of around 25 billion yen ($222 million).

While Nissan has said the misconduct has no impact on the quality of its vehicles, it has raised questions about how closely rules are followed at its production plants, while also dealing a blow to its reputation at home...

Nissan will continue to produce vehicles for export in Japan, including its popular Rogue SUV crossover model and the battery-electric Leaf, as the certification process for final inspections does not apply to vehicles shipped overseas...
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nissan-recall/nissan-to-suspend-domestic-production-of-cars-for-japan-market-idUSKBN1CO1FW?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FbusinessNews+%28Business+News%29
 
edatoakrun said:
...Today's news indicates Nissan has a big problem...
As found in translation by Bertel Schmitt:

...What happened really?...

In Japan, a new car is legal only when tested and approved by government agencies. You don’t want to have to do this for each car that leaves the factory. Therefore, in an exercise called “Conformity of Production,” OEMs file lengthy statements, certifying that each new car is essentially of the quality as the tested one. Part of this is what is known in the biz as a “control plan” that describes the types of checks and measurements taken to control the quality.

When Nissan files its papers with the Japanese government, part of its plan is that each car is checked by a technician who has received two months of training. After the two months, the technician receives a special pin, and he can legally certify the quality of the car.

Nissan’s crime was that some quality controls were performed by technicians while they were still within the two months training period, we heard today from Nissan’s Chief Competitive Officer Yasuhiro Yamauchi. “In an attempt to lubricate the operation, the foreman may have decided that a technician is suitably skilled before the two months are over,” Saikawa added.

Did any defects slip by these not-yet-certified inspectors. “No,” Saikawa said, “no defects.” Nevertheless, three years’ worth of cars have to go back, in order to get the proper paper, signed and sealed by a man with the proper pin...
https://dailykanban.com/2017/10/nissan-brouhaha-premature-inspectors-cause-shutdown/
 
Hmm... seems like Nissan's not alone.

Subaru says improper inspections conducted for over 30 years
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/subaru-says-improper-inspections-conducted-084846527.html
 
Not a great quarter:

Nissan cuts profit outlook on inspection scandal after downbeat Second quarter

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) - Japan’s Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) reported its smallest quarterly profit in three years and cut its annual outlook, hurt by rising expenses in a competitive North American market and costs stemming from improper final inspection procedures at home...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nissan-results/nissan-cuts-profit-outlook-on-inspection-scandal-after-downbeat-second-quarter-idUSKBN1D80CT

But longer-term, the Mitsubishi acquisition is now looking like a very shrewd move:

Carlos Ghosn Does It Again

Nissan's stake has almost doubled in value and future indicators are looking healthy


The auto patriarch who last year folded troubled Mitsubishi Motors Corp. into the Groupe Renault-Nissan Motor Co. global alliance has seen the value of his company's 34 percent stake almost double. After reporting a 9.6 percent jump in first-half sales on Tuesday from the year before, Mitsubishi Motors' market value topped 1.35 trillion yen ($11.9 billion). Talk about a quick buck, er, 223 billion yen for Nissan...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-07/carlos-ghosn-s-gamble-on-mitsubishi-motors-is-paying-off
 
IMO, N-R-M will likely be the first manufacture of BEVs to meet both these objectives.

Ghosn focuses Renault-Nissan alliance on EV assault

NEW YORK — Carlos Ghosn refuses to say the words "I told you so." But you know he's thinking it.

For almost a decade, Ghosn has been the industry's biggest cheerleader for electric vehicles — predicting their rise, touting the logic of their technology and suffering all the slings and arrows of critics who said he was wrong.

Ahead of his competitors, Ghosn bullishly invested $5 billion in 2010 and 2011 to build mass-market EV assembly lines and battery plants in the U.S., Europe and Japan for the two automakers he oversaw, Nissan Motor Co. and Renault.

Many in the industry shrugged off EV technology, saying consumers weren't interested. But now, automakers from BMW to Volkswagen are scrambling to electrify their vehicle portfolios. Toyota, General Motors, Ford, Daimler, Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo all have revealed big EV product plans in recent months.

"Now they come," Ghosn quips of the growing industry trend. "Everybody's coming. The reality appears more clearly to a lot of people today."

Ghosn in September unveiled a six-year business plan for the newly renamed Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, of which he is CEO, to create 12 electric models worldwide.

The 12 will be jointly developed by the alliance and sold through Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi brands. And many more models will follow those, he hints during an interview last week at the alliance's Manhattan offices....

The plan will unfold in a new era of development for the three automakers. As CEO, Ghosn is pushing the alliance to step up its coordination of technology-sharing and co-development work. Another part of the six-year plan calls for much more emphasis on shared vehicle platforms and powertrains. Ghosn says that by 2022, 9 million of the three companies' vehicle sales will come from four shared platforms.

The 12 EVs of the next six years will be a group undertaking, not individual models developed separately by the alliance member companies.

"Now we're saying: One platform. One set of batteries. One set of motors," says Ghosn, who handed over his CEO title at Nissan this year but remains chairman of the automaker. "We're going to go together because our objectives are mass marketing and profitability."...

"For me it was obvious," he says of his idea, voiced in 2008, to mass-produce electrics. "And I said, the first one who was going to move in this direction was going to benefit a lot, not only in terms of brand, but in terms of the advantage of mass-marketing the electric car."
http://europe.autonews.com/article/20171112/COPY/311129998/ghosn-focuses-renault-nissan-alliance-on-ev-assault
 
Some more detail on last fall's announcement by CG, in previous post:

Six EVs headed to Nissan, Infiniti

TOKYO — The Nissan brand will get four full electric vehicles and Infiniti will receive two over the next five years, a top Nissan Motor Co. powertrain executive says.

Those six battery-powered vehicles are the Japanese automaker’s share of the 12 EVs that are now planned for Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi through 2022, ...

The six Nissan vehicles include only full EVs, not hybrid powertrains such as the company’s new e-Power system...

The EV plan reflects only the next five years. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa separately last month revealed a longer range plan in which, starting in 2021, every new vehicle coming out of Infiniti will be either an EV or an e-Power system vehicle.
https://www.worldsitenews.com/six-evs-headed-to-nissan-infiniti/
 
LEAF sales territory expanding:

Nissan to launch new all-electric Leaf in Asia-Pacific markets

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) said on Tuesday it will launch the new version of its all-electric vehicle Leaf in seven markets in Asia-Pacific, and explore bringing it to two more, in its latest push to boost sales of electrified vehicles...

Nissan, Japan’s No. 2 automaker, will launch the model in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand during the next fiscal year, and also explore introducing it in Indonesia and the Philippines.

The company is also looking at the option of bringing vehicles based on its “e-Power” gasoline hybrid technology to Southeast Asia...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nissan-se-asia-strategy/nissan-to-launch-new-all-electric-leaf-in-asia-pacific-markets-idUSKBN1FQ1L9

And Nissan is making a big additional investment in EV production in China:

Nissan to Invest $9 Billion in China in Race for EV Dominance

Nissan Motor Co. intends to spend 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) over five years in China as it vies to become the largest global electrified vehicle maker in the country.

The Japanese carmaker aims to raise annual deliveries by 1 million units by 2022, with much of the growth coming from electrified models, Jun Seki, head of Nissan’s China operations, told reporters in Beijing Monday...

Nissan, maker of the Leaf EV and already the largest Japanese carmaker in China, is planning to introduce 20 electrified models by 2022 in China. Under the plan, electrified cars will account for 30 percent of all sales in 2022, and by 2025, all Infiniti models will be electrified.

Nissan set up a joint venture with China’s Dongfeng Motor Group in 2003 and in August last year, established a joint venture with Renault SA and Dongfeng to develop electric cars for the local market.

The Japanese automaker was initially uncertain about how fast demand would grow for electrified vehicles in China and wanted to avoid over-investing, said Seki.

“The growth in local competition has been much faster than we expected,” he said. “Now we have come around to changing our local strategy.”...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-05/nissan-to-invest-9-billion-in-china-to-boost-sales-over-5-years
 
Update on plans for new model BEV/hybrid models:

Nissan aims to sell 1 million electrified vehicles a year by FY2022

YOKOHAMA, Japan – Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today unveiled plans to launch growing numbers of electrified vehicles, expand and evolve autonomous driving systems, and accelerate vehicle connectivity as part of its Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022 midterm plan.

Among the targets, Nissan is aiming to sell 1 million electrified vehicles – either pure electric models or those with e-POWER powertrains – annually by fiscal year 2022.

As part of Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022, the company also intends to:

Develop eight new pure electric vehicles, building on the success of the new Nissan LEAF
Launch an electric car offensive in China under different brands
Introduce an electric “kei” mini-vehicle in Japan
Offer a global crossover electric vehicle, inspired by the Nissan IMx Concept
Electrify new INFINITI models from fiscal year 2021
Equip 20 models in 20 markets with autonomous driving technology
Reach 100% connectivity for all new Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun cars sold in key markets by the end of the plan
Philippe Klein, Nissan’s chief planning officer, said: “Our product and technology strategy is dedicated to positioning Nissan to lead the automotive, technology and business evolution. Our efforts are focused on delivering Nissan Intelligent Mobility, encompassing the three core elements of electrification, autonomous drive, connectivity and new mobility services.”

Speaking at a media briefing alongside senior vice presidents Takao Asami and Ogi Redzic, who lead the respective autonomous driving and connectivity projects at the Alliance, Klein reaffirmed that the midterm plan aims to boost annualized revenue by 30% to 16.5 trillion yen by the end of fiscal year 2022. The company is also targeting an 8% core operating profit margin and cumulative free cash flow of 2.5 trillion yen.

Klein pledged to leverage the platform and powertrain assets of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi to support the company’s goals...
http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/releases/nissan-aims-to-sell-1-million-electrified-vehicles-a-year-by-fy2022

In other news, '19 MY Altima reveal next week, will get ProPILOT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGvJNkFK9V0
 
That's a big (and apparently, permanent) production cutback, after so many years of US expansion.

Reading between the lines, maybe Nissan's view of the future USA economy is not as bright as our fearless leader has been projecting?

Nissan to cut North American output by 20% to shore up US profitability: Nikkei

Nissan Motor is slashing vehicle production by as much as 20 percent in North America to cope with falling profitability in the United States, its biggest sales market, Japan's Nikkei business daily reported on Monday.

Japan's No. 2 automaker has been slowing production in the United States, where an aggressive ramp-up in vehicle sales has come at the cost of increased discounting and fleet sales, which has eroded profitability in the world's second-largest auto market.

Cuts are already in progress at two assembly plants in the United States and three in Mexico, the Nikkei said, adding that employees will not be let go, and production lines will not be completely halted, with the cutbacks expected to wrap up later this year...

The automaker earlier this month repeated that it was shifting its U.S. strategy to one of sustained profitability from one which focused on aggressive growth, and that it had been lowering plant utilization to enable its dealers to sell down built-up inventories...
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/29/nissan-to-cut-north-american-output-by-20-percent-to-shore-up-us-profitability-nikkei.html
 
Nissan says FU (politely) to Trump, and this report optimistically suggests the worlds other vehicle manufactures (excepting, perhaps, USA car makers?) will do the same:
Nissan says no to Trump’s indecent fuel efficiency proposal

“We are not going to relax,” said Nissan’s Chief Sustainability Officer Hitoshi Kawaguchi, when Wall Street Journal’s Tokyo reporter Sean McLain asked him today in Yokohama whether Trump’s fuel efficiency rollback would impact Nissan’s plans to reduce consumption and hence emissions of its cars by 40% until 2022.

“We will not change,” continued Kawaguchi. “In the U.S., there already is a major disparity between the views of the Federal Government and the State of California. The U.S. is not alone in the world. There are Chinese standards, there are European standards. If you look at it globally, without hesitation the direction is electrification and zero emission.”

Global automakers most likely will go in the same direction as Nissan. As Kawaguchi indicated, they have no other choice. Automakers can hardly continue producing gas guzzlers for the United States, while developing ever more fuel-efficient cars for all of the world, including California and the states aligned with its policies. For Detroit, the matter is a little different. Ford and GM are step by step withdrawing from many global markets, and especially from the emerging kind, to focus on making profits and gas guzzlers at home...
https://dailykanban.com/2018/06/nissan-says-no-to-trumps-fuel-efficiency-proposal/
 
This aligns with other news where Ford is abandoning the car market in favor of trucks and SUVs. Sad to see our domestic brands are choosing to fall further behind. So shortsighted.

Kudos to Nissan for continuing to pursue improvement and more electrification. They may have lost the advantage they had from early adoption, but at least it sounds like they are still on board with going the right way, just not as fast as many of us here would hope for.
 
PR below points out the upside of Nissan's decision to update, rather than replace the LEAF.

Initial quality rating actually improved significantly, with the MY '18 intro:

Nissan ties for most awards in J.D. Power 2018 Initial Quality Study

Altima, Frontier and Maxima top their segments; Smyrna Assembly Plant wins Bronze Award


NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nissan topped three vehicle segments and finished in the top three in two others in the 2018 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS). J.D. Power IQS is the industry benchmark for new vehicle quality in the U.S. This year, the Nissan brand improved by eight problems per hundred vehicles (PP100) to an overall average of just 85 PP100, which was best performance of all non-luxury Japanese brands.

The 2018 Nissan Frontier was the top-rated Midsize Pickup for the third consecutive year, while Maxima won Large Car honors with 57 PP100, the second highest score of any vehicle in the study. The popular Nissan Altima took top honors in the competitive Midsize Car segment with a 65 PP100 score, good for sixth among all vehicles in the survey and an 18-point improvement from the 2017 study.

The all-new 100-percent electric Nissan LEAF was another bright spot among many for the brand, with a 17-point improvement in initial vehicle quality over the car's previous generation surveyed in 2017.

"Nissan's J.D. Power IQS results for 2018 are encouraging because they reflect customer satisfaction directly from the people who buy and lease our vehicles," said Mark Swenson, vice president, Total Customer Satisfaction, Nissan North America. "Positive IQS performance is a tribute to the ongoing efforts of Nissan Engineering, R&D, Quality and Manufacturing teams around the world, as well as our many global supplier partners. It is rewarding for us to see positive movement in J.D. Power IQS for three years running."
https://newsroom.nissan-global.com/releases/release-75b19d3a1fdacef50552303145135c96-nissan-ties-for-most-awards-in-jd-power-2018-initial-quality-study
 
Nissan Sticks With AESC, Sale Of Battery Unit To GSR Canceled
https://insideevs.com/nissan-stuck-with-aesc-as-sale-of-battery-unit-to-gsr-was-canceled/
 
DarthPuppy said:
Kudos to Nissan for continuing to pursue improvement and more electrification.
Just a business decision, as they openly admit. The non-trump part of the world buys a lot of vehicles. Yet Nissan will continue to sell gas guzzling trucks in the polluted states of America, god willing.
 
Nissan Says It Found ‘Misconduct' in Exhaust, Fuel Economy Tests
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-09/nissan-says-it-found-misconduct-in-exhaust-fuel-economy-tests

Nissan Shares Tank as It Admits That Some of Its Factories Faked Emissions and Fuel Efficiency Test Data
http://fortune.com/2018/07/09/nissan-false-emissions-fuel-efficiency-data/

Uh oh.
 
Nissan Pushes Back on Renault's Renewed Efforts to Merge
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-13/renault-makes-formal-merger-proposal-to-nissan-tbs-reports-jvlt5ggn

Japan opposed Renault-Nissan merger via METI in spring 2018, French newspaper reports
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/04/15/business/corporate-business/japan-opposed-renault-nissan-merger-via-meti-spring-2018-french-newspaper-reports/

And, to complicate things was very recent news on this:
Fiat Chrysler proposes Renault merger in auto industry shake-up
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/27/business/fiat-chrysler-renault-merger/index.html

There's been lots of speculation as to what will happen w/the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Alliance. Will Renault cut Nissan loose or be able to? Will FCA get merged into the Aliance?
 
I shudder to imagine electric vehicles with Chrysler-Fiat build quality, Renault styling* and Nissan battery quality and longevity.



* Although I suppose it can't be any worse than Fiat "styling."
 
^^^
LOL! I actually find the Fiat 500 and 500e to have decent styling, inside and out.

The original https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Multipla was pretty bad though.

Front page of https://www.fcagroup.com/en-US/Pages/home.aspx has pointer to https://www.fcagroup.com/en-US/investors/Pages/fca_merger_proposal_to_groupe_renault.aspx which has their press release.

FCA does have other brands like Maserati and Alfa.

Renault's styling isn't that bad. Take a look at https://www.renault.fr/. And, there seem to be some vehicles at https://www.renaultsamsungm.com/2017/main/main.jsp that don't seem to have direct parallels to what I see over at Renault's French page (e.g. Renault Samsung SM3 and SM5). Many years ago when 5th gen Nissan Maxima (00 to 03 model year aka A33) was the latest version, the Samsung SM5 was basically a Renault Samsung built 4th gen Maxima.
 
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