AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)07/31 Report--

According to Nissan's financial results for the first quarter of 2019 released on July 25th, Nissan had net revenue of 2.37 trillion yen and operating profit of just 1.6 billion yen, falling to an all-time low. The company's net profit plunged 94.5% to 6.4 billion yen, the lowest since 2009 in the first quarter of each fiscal year.

Nissan's total first-quarter sales fell 6.0 per cent year-on-year to 1.23 million vehicles, according to the data. Of this total, sales in Japan fell 2.6 per cent year-on-year to 126000 vehicles; those in the US refined 3.8 per cent to 351000 vehicles; those in Europe fell 16.3 per cent to 135000 vehicles; and in other markets, Nissan sales fell 13.1 per cent to 174000 vehicles.

In China, by contrast, sales rose 2.3 per cent to 344000 vehicles, up 0.7 per cent from a year earlier, in sharp contrast to other markets. Nissan said that this is mainly for the Chinese market demand for models such as Nissan Xuanyi, Xiaoke, Qijun and Dongfeng Qichen T60.

It is understood that in the first half of 2019, Nissan sold a total of 718200 new cars in the Chinese market, and Nissan Xuanyi sold 209500 in the first half of the year, an increase of 4.6% over the same period last year. Qijun sold 10.56% in the first half of the year, an increase of 9.3% over the same period last year.

Even in 2018, when the arrest of Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan, triggered internal unrest and a decline in performance, coupled with the declining car market in China, Nissan still achieved sales growth in China, reaching 1.564 million vehicles, accounting for nearly 30% of global sales.

For the Chinese market, however, Nissan is rational in setting its target, which remains unchanged at 1.6 million vehicles in 2019, the same as in 2018. While Nissan's sales in China mainly come from Dongfeng Nissan, the domestic car market also suffered turmoil in the first half of this year, but Dongfeng Nissan still reached sales of 532000 vehicles, up 0.3 per cent from a year earlier. Coupled with the upgrading of Dongfeng Nissan's two blockbuster models, Haoke and Xuanyi, there should be no need to worry about Nissan's market prospects in China in the second half of the year, but other markets will be extremely challenging.

In the face of such a grim situation in other markets, Nissan said in an announcement that it was optimizing its cost structure and manufacturing business, increasing investment in core models, improving product competitiveness, while enhancing brand value and steadily updating its product lineup to achieve sustained global growth. Nissan CEO Hiroshi Nishikawa hopes to restore the company's operating profit to 6 per cent by March 31, 2023, up from 2.7 per cent last year.

In the announcement, Nissan also announced layoffs. Nissan said it would reduce its global capacity by 10 per cent by the end of fiscal year 2022, freeing up money for electric and self-driving research and development. At the same time, Nissan plans to launch 20 electric models by 2022 to improve future-oriented market competitiveness. In line with production optimisation, Hiroshi Nishikawa plans to cut 12500 jobs worldwide by March 31, 2023, equivalent to 9 per cent of Nissan's global workforce.

In addition to layoffs and production cuts, Nissan also plans to change its car sales methods in the United States to revive the U. S. car market. Hiroshi Nishikawa plans to change Ghosn's long-standing expansion strategy of "price for volume" and "reward for performance" in the United States, hoping to improve Nissan's profitability in the United States by increasing retail proportions. the goal is to increase pure retail sales by 100000 and restore US car sales to 1.4 million.

As of February 2019, 1/4 of Nissan's u.s. sales in the past 12 months came from leasing companies rather than dealers. Leasing companies account for about 12% of sales in the United States, which is obviously not friendly to Nissan's current situation. Hiroshi Nishikawa has also admitted that a number of auto companies have experienced similar distribution channel dilemmas in the United States before, but no company has been able to solve the problem quickly within three years.

In the face of the decadent market, Xichuan Guang people are obviously unable to achieve their goals, and whether this self-rescue can take a turn for the better can only be answered by the test of time.

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