Even before corona virus struck the globe, big changes were expected in the Japanese company. Now, it looks things will be even worse than we expected. Too ambitious plans in the past made a completely opposite effect, so the company is now facing significant cuts. We have witnessed all those forced unpaid vacations in the past, but after this pandemic strike, there’s nothing good to expect, at least from the perspective of the labor force.
It looks like the problem with the former CEO Carlos Ghosn was in too big ambition, which ended with total fiasco. While some realistic plans were about 6 million, the former CEO expected 7-8 million. With more investments in assemblies, the management completely neglected development centers, so many models will be under question in the future, particularly sports cars like GT-R, or even the new Z-car which is already under development.
It’s not only about sports cars, even the most popular models in the lineup now seem outdated and there is simply not enough time to update all of them in a short period. The new Sentra is doing well currently. However, most important models of the brand, crossovers, are still waiting for complete overhauls, despite some of them has been around for more than eight years.
Therefore, one of the first things the new management did is the creation of a completely new plan, which will last until 2023 or longer. According to the new plan, no more than 5 million units per year are expected to be produced and sold. This leads us to all those workers that will probably lose their job. Even before the new pandemic crisis, the company expected to cut back the workforce for about 10 percent. These days, it looks like these cuts will be even bigger. Simply, the sales plan went from 7-8 million to five. In the world of modern economics, things are pretty simple here – lower production, fewer workers.
With such big losses, there’s no doubt that funds for further developments will be limited. So, the company will probably focus on the most popular models only, particularly crossovers. The new Rogue is on the way, while we expect the same from the rest of the lineup. On the other side, the future of sports cars is uncertain. The new Z-Car is already in development and Nissan will probably finish the process. On the other side, we are not sure about the new GT-R. Time will tell.
