Can troubled automaker Nissan survive the next 5 years? Why the experts say yes
Mark Phelan, Detroit Free Press
5 min read
Nissan’s been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately ― management turmoil, falling sales, potential merger or acquisition ― but consumers shouldn’t be concerned the automaker and its dealers won’t be around if they own a Nissan or Infiniti vehicle.
Nissan faces myriad challenges, but analysts don’t see the sun setting on the company anytime soon, and insiders are buoyed by a new management team’s first moves.
The new Nissan Leaf EV is expected offer a longer range and SUV-style looks when it arrives later this year
“It’s too early to worry about Nissan going under,” said Adam Bernard, principal of consultant Autoperspectives. “It faces big challenges, but they’re not insurmountable.”
Automakers are notoriously hard to kill ― and Nissan has assets that startups and newcomers can only dream of, including established dealers across the United States, widespread U.S. manufacturing and engineering facilities and a heritage that includes decades of growth and landmark vehicles, including honest to God icons like the Z and GT-R sports cars.
“An $11 billion company that’s been around for decades, has a global manufacturing footprint and 1,300 outlets in the United States doesn’t just disappear,” said Brian Gordon, president of Dave Cantin Group, which advises dealerships.
“This is not anywhere near the end of the line for Nissan, but maybe the beginning of a new chapter.”
How did Nissan end up in this state?
Nissan leadership has been ineffective for more than two decades. The automaker was hours from insolvency in 1999, when French-based Renault bought a controlling stake at fire sale prices and installed executive Carlos Ghosn to turn things around. Ghosn succeeded and Nissan became the profit engine for an automaking group that was briefly the world’s top seller.
Nissan promises 10 new or updated vehicles in te U.S. and Canada by 2027, starting with the new Leaf EV (middle).
It was an uneasy alliance. Nissan executives chafed at being overseen by French management, when the Japanese-based brands sold more vehicles and generated more profit than Renault.
The dissatisfaction simmered for years, hampering efforts to combine the automakers fully. It boiled over when insiders charged then CEO Ghosn of financial misdeeds in 2018, leading to his house arrest and a cinematic escape from Japan.
Things went from bad to worse under new leadership, which oversaw sliding sales, market share and finances.
In December 2024, Nissan and Honda announced a plan to merge, an unlikely alliance widely believed to have been orchestrated by the Japanese government to keep Nissan from falling into foreign ― likely Chinese or Taiwanese ― hands.
Nissan backed out of those negotiations in February.
The company’s prospects remain unclear, but newly named CEO Ivan Espinosa calmed the waters somewhat, instilling new confidence in dealers and revealing a handful of upcoming vehicles to the public recently.
"The Kicks (pictured) has the potential to be a much stronger contributor to volume." - Vinay Shahani, Nissan head of US marketing and sales
'Full-speed ahead'
Influential Nissan dealer Eric Frehsée is effusive about the changes, which include a number of pricing and distribution changes addressing longstanding dealer complaints.
“There is absolutely nothing to worry about,” the president of the Michigan-based Tamaroff Group, which includes Tamaroff Nissan in Southfield, told me. “There’s not a better time to buy a Nissan than now,” in part because “everything in our inventory today is tariff-free.
“I’m very confident in the new leadership,” said Frehsée, who has served on Nissan’s regional dealer council. “I know what’s in the pipeline.”
Newly named Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa has rekindled optimism at the automaker.
The recent presentations also pumped up Vinay Shahani, Nissan’s U.S. sales boss.
“There’s cash in the bank and we’re investing in new products,” Shahani said from Nissan’s North American HQ in Nashville. “It’s full-speed ahead.”
Shahani and Frehsée both stress the breadth of Nissan’s model line, with several vehicles priced under $30,000. Nissan also still sells passenger cars at a time many other manufacturers have switched to SUVs.
Customers get more choices
The new vehicles aim to broaden Nissan’s choice of powertrains. A paucity of hybrids is among the factors contributing to a 31.7% drop in U.S. Nissan and Infiniti sales since 2019 ― the last "typical" year before the pandemic wreaked havoc on production. The two brands managed just 917,598 sales in 2024, versus 1,343,959 in 2019, according to S&P Global Mobility.
“We’re shoring up a deficit in alternative powertrains,” Shahani said. “America is not a one-size-fits-all market. There’s so much diversity and we need to cover it all.”
That means Nissan’s cornerstone model, the Rogue compact SUV, will add plug-in hybrid models and an unusual "plug-less" electric vehicle system the company calls E-power over the next couple of years. E-power uses a gasoline engine as an onboard generator. The battery never charges from the grid.
Other upcoming vehicles will also be developed to accommodate traditional internal combustion, hybrids and E-power.
Prices for the 2025 Nissan Kicks start at $21,830, excluding destination charge
Shahani also believes Nissan’s Infiniti luxury brand can grow with the new QX80 and upcoming QX60 large and midsize SUVs, respectively.
What’s the end game?
Nissan’s expected to continue negotiations with potential investors. Incoming CEO Espinosa is reported to be more open to new ideas than the old guard.
That could include revived talks with Honda; a deal with Taiwan’s Foxconn, an accomplished contract manufacturer that would love to become an EV maker, and potentially other companies. Nissan’s established brand identity and global footprint will make it attractive to multiple candidates.
“Nissan will survive in one form or another,” S&P Global principal automotive analyst Stephanie Brinley said.
“If you own a Nissan, you’ll still be able to get parts for your car. The dealers will still be there. There are protections for customers.”
