In many corporate cultures, blame is the one currency that’s easy to give but difficult to hold. Who is really to blame for Nissan’s woes and, more pointedly, for the hard decisions the company now has to make? I think it’s important to reflect on this as the current CEO decides to make a change that, up until recently, seemed almost impossible.
This Morning Dump is going to weigh what it says very carefully, because my instinct is to praise Nissan leadership for making the hard choices. At the same time, the fallout from these decisions will fall hardest on the people least to blame. Making the “hard choices” is easier when you’re making millions of dollars no matter what.
Who to blame for inflation? For a long time, some of the biggest contributors to inflation were cars and car-related services like insurance. Now the opposite is happening. Who gets credit for that? Tesla goes to trial in Florida over a tragic death involving the car’s autopilot system and there, too, is a place to talk about blame.
At least with Stellantis, the blame game is a little easier, as all the people who left under the Tavares regime start returning.
Nissan’s History In The Oppama Plant, Which Is Why It’s Wild They’re Closing It
Back in 1961, Nissan was at the start of a post-war resurgence that would peak somewhere around 1996. The vehicle that Americans probably most associate with Nissan (then Datsun) of that era is the 240Z. For car enthusiasts and everyone else, it’s probably the Datsun Bluebird. This was a reliable, compact, and attractive sedan/coupe/wagon/truck that would underpin the company’s global expansion.
This car was built at the then-high-tech Oppama plant in Fukuoka Prefecture. It was a longtime symbol for the Japanese company and is, even today, the flagship plant for the company. In spite of the success of our NV200 Taxi, the actual NV200 is only marginally popular, and so it doesn’t make sense to keep that plant open. Where is it built? You guessed it: Oppama.
And now this iconic factory is being closed. Or, eventually, it’s being closed. Here’s what Nissan put out this morning:
This decision applies solely to the Oppama plant within the Oppama district. Other facilities and functions in the district—such as the Nissan Research Center, GRANDRIVE, the crash test facility, and Oppama Wharf—will remain unaffected and continue operations as usual.
Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa stated, “Today, Nissan made a tough but necessary decision. It wasn’t easy—for me or for the company—but I believe it’s a vital step toward overcoming our current challenges and building a sustainable future. The Oppama Plant is a proud part of our history, and its legacy will endure. I want to sincerely thank our employees, the local community, and our partners who have supported this plant with dedication and heart. We will continue to operate in the Oppama area with strong support for the local community, as we carry forward the spirit of Oppama plant and work to restore Nissan’s true value.”
Regarding the future utilization of the Oppama plant after production ends, Nissan will explore a wide range of options to determine the most appropriate path forward. Employees currently working at the Oppama plant will remain in their employment until the end of fiscal year 2027. To address concerns regarding employment and work arrangements beyond that point, the company will establish clear policies, communicate them to affected employees, and initiate discussions with the union promptly once decisions are finalized.
FY2027 is actually 2028, so that gives workers some time (in theory, it also gives Nissan time to save it, but that seems remote now). I know it’s hard to imagine, but this is a good thing. The biggest reason why Honda walked away from the Nissan deal is that, reportedly, Nissan didn’t want to make any tough choices about its business operations (for Nissan’s part, there wasn’t a lot of interest in being a subsidiary of Honda). Right now, Oppama is at about 60% utilization according to the company, and Nissan really needs its plants closer to 100%.
How much credit should we give new CEO Espinosa for making this decision? Or, to put it another way, how much blame should we lay at his feet? This will be destructive for the lives of the plant workers, their families, and the local community. Espinosa will get millions of dollars, probably, while all this happens.
Espinosa has been with the company for years, but has hardly been an executive at a high enough level to swing Nissan’s fortunes one way or the other. It’s his decision as a leader, but I don’t think you can really pin it on him. Could you blame Carlos Ghosn, then? The once heralded exec took the company on a path that resulted in a lot of products that, currently, aren’t exactly lighting up the market. Maybe you should blame the Nissan employees who, allegedly, conspired to have Ghosn arrested for trying to (maybe) merge the company more fully with Renault?
Or perhaps it’s the Renault deal that made this inevitable. Or, equally, maybe the Renault deal stalled this from happening for years, and it’s the Nissan board of the 1990s that allowed the company to overextend itself during the Bubble Era. I don’t know.
This is the difficulty of blame. It’s not one thing that did Nissan in, but rather a confluence of external and internal factors.
Inflation Is Down, Thanks To Cars
I am maybe on “Team Transitory,” which is a nonsense phrase if you don’t follow economics podcasts or the market. Basically, the idea was/is that the inflation caused by pandemic consumer and government spending, as well as supply disruptions, was going to go away mostly on its own, and that placing the blame on, say, President Biden for making eggs more expensive, was kind of missing the point.
Inflation continues to go down, and we can thank cars, sort of. From Bloomberg:
Goods prices, excluding food and energy commodities, rose 0.2% after stalling in the prior month. Categories that are more exposed to tariffs, including toys, furniture, appliances and apparel, showed strength, suggesting companies are starting to pass higher import costs on to consumers. Meantime, prices of new and used cars declined.
Oh, neat. Especially given that cars were such a big cause of inflation going up.
There’s another side to this, though:
Inflation Insights LLC President Omair Sharif pointed out that excluding cars, core goods prices climbed 0.55% in June — the biggest monthly advance since November 2021. “Today’s report showed that tariffs are beginning to bite,” he said in a note.
However, the slew of below-forecast inflation readings raises questions as to how broadly President Donald Trump’s tariffs will impact consumer prices. Some companies have been able to shield customers by stocking up on inventories ahead of the levies or absorbing part of the higher costs at the expense of lower margins.
I guess what I’m saying is: I’m transitory transitoriness.
Tesla’s Autopilot Is Going On Trial
There haven’t been a lot of trials over Tesla’s “Autopilot,” mostly because Tesla has often settled cases. Tesla’s stance is, usually, that drivers are making some sort of mistake when “Autopilot” or “FSD” is being used, and the company isn’t to blame because it officially says that you need to pay attention when using the technology.
The rub here is that CEO Elon Musk and Tesla can make it sound like the cars are able to drive themselves.
There’s a big trial in Florida involving a driver in a Tesla using the software who, briefly, went to look for her dropped phone when the car decided to veer into a parked vehicle. One woman was killed and another person was seriously injured. NPR breaks it down:
Lawyers for the plaintiffs accuse the company of overpromising what its technology can do in order to sell cars.
“Tesla advertised Autopilot in a way that greatly exaggerated its capabilities and hid its deficiencies,” they say in court filings, “encouraging Tesla drivers to over-rely on its Autopilot system.”
It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out.
Stellantis Continues To Get The Band Back Together
Ex-Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, pictured above, got $26 million for his work at the company. That work seemed to consist largely of pissing everyone off and driving away talented people. Now that Tavares is gone, more and more employees are coming back.
Jason Stoicevich, who previously led Stellantis’ Canada operations and U.S. retail sales before leaving in May 2024, has returned to the company.
A spokesperson confirmed that Stoicevich is now responsible for dealer strategy and performance in North America.
Stoicevich returned to the company July 14 and will report to Tim Kuniskis, who was named head of American brands, North America marketing and retail strategy this month.
It’s a hard job, but it might be easier with the current leadership.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
The Big Question
Who is to blame for Nissan’s woes?
Top graphic image: Nissan
The scapegoat for Nissan’s woes sounds remarkably similar to one we’ve encountered in the US for over a decade: Thanks, Oppama!
But it didn’t get a Nobel so it doesn’t register.
Whoever killed off the SR20 is to blame.
Those things always pulled a premium before race wars
I keep telling you, They are in the Warehouse man, the Warehouse!
Worst music choice I think you’ve ever made on TMD, but they can’t all be winners I s’pose.
Nissan has been on this trajectory for awhile now so I definitely can’t blame the new guy.
Matt, you missed the real headline on Nissan here.
They’re planning on closing 7 out of 17 plants worldwide.
https://global.nissannews.com/en/releases/250715-01-e
Oppama, and Shonan announced now. More to come, I’m sure.
In other news, Nissan stocks downgraded to junk, and Nissan will lease Oppama out to Foxcon.
So, Shonen jumped rather than being pushed.
I work in supply chain and am already getting notices that the separate tariff charge that was listed on invoices as 3% is now just getting baked into the sale price at 6%.
And the beauty of tariffs is the rubes that are cheering one of the largest tax increases on American households are also paying higher sales tax because the selling price increases because of said import taxes (tariffs).
Bravo Republicans.
Nobody said owning the libs would be cheap.
You pay for what you get.
Now that they “own” us, what are they planning to do with us?
Soylent Green
One of our vendors is putting the tariff surcharge as a line item on the PO. It’s 10% and it’s really starting to add up as this is an expensive raw material. Largest one I’ve seen so far was $36,000.
Omair Sharif, the tariff sheriff. Not to be confused with Omar Sharif, the Harith Sherif.
Omair Sharif in action. He’s a dead-eyed killer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jj8nz59W6IQ&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD
It’s going to be hard for me to blame Nissan’s current CEO for any cuts that happen on his watch. I’m not typically one to believe that it’s all the other guy’s fault, but good lord, Ghosn left that company in complete shambles.
I believe he actually left that company in enclosed luggage.
Funny how the “shippers” went to jail, but he’s still free. Well, as free as one can be when unable to travel out of Lebanon. Non-extradition is a double edged sword.
Happens to all those under the leader.
On an unrelated note, I wonder how Ghislaine Maxwell is doing these days.
All things considered, better than her boss.
I wonder if the missing minute of surveillance video will live in pop culture as long as the missing eight minutes of Nixon’s audio tapes.
Is this Ghosn, or was this self-inflicted scuttling by Nissan executives who fought tooth-and-nail against Ghosn/Renault?
Nissan’s executives seem to subscribe to the GM method of sticking your fingers in your ears and going LALALALA real loud. So they’re not innocent. Ghosn is really to blame here, though. He was so obsessed with cutting costs that the company really failed to innovate during his tenure, and they developed a reputation for shoddy build quality.
I’d say that continuously variable guy might have something to do with it.
“Espinosa will get millions of dollars, probably, while all this happens.”
Japan isn’t like the US.
CEOs there don’t earn hundreds of times more money than line workers – the CEO to worker pay ratio in Japan is closer to 12:1
Espinosa’s predecessor only earned the equivalent of $4.2MM/ year – So he’ll be in the $4-5MM range.
“the … NV200 …. Where is it built? You guessed it: Oppama.”
Wrong.
Its become the EV plant – The Leaf was built there – now the Nissan Aura and Note are built there.
https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/PLANT/OPPAMA/
I mean, 4-5 million is still, by definition, millions. Maybe it’s not the tens of millions that Tavares got to drive Stellantis onto the rocks, but it’s still enough that I could comfortably retire on about six months of his salary. He’ll be fine no matter what happens, which I think was Matt’s point.
Also, 12:1 with a 4.2 million dollar salary would suggest regular employees are making 350k per year. I find that a little difficult to believe.
I got that 12:1 ratio from Nikkei Asia.
Japan relies on bonuses and non-cash compensation for C Suite execs more than salaries – so I believe the 4.2 number is probably all compensation combined, putting the ratio closer to the 50-60:1 number I’ve seen elsewhere – which still is more reasonable than the 300-400:1 ratio I’ve seen for US CEOs
Yea this is what I have heard, the japanese execs take “low” salaries of only a million or so, but get huge chunks in other means, and not all of them are above water. I thought the whole problem with Ghosn was that while most of the execs get money through unsavory means as a way to hold each other accountable, he thought he was bigger than that and when the further Renault merging was announced the other execs already knew they could throw him under the bus with the evidence of his misdeeds that they also kinda sorta do? I could be wrong with all this though.
There the NV200 was built:
https://www.nissan-shatai.co.jp/EN/CRAFTSMANSHIP/SHONAN/index.html
Meanwhile – the Z was only built in Oppama for 3 years – 2002-2004
It was originally built in the above Shatai plant – where Light Commercial Vehicle production is now – till 2000. Now the Z is built in Tochigi.
https://www.nissan-global.com/EN/PLANT/TOCHIGI/
Is this not an easy answer? Ghosn…Not necessarily because of his misuse of funds, but because he was CEO that took Nissan from the 2000 Nissan Maxima to essentially what they are now.
A 2000 Nissan Maxima in 2025?
I’m just gonna blame Carlos Tavares, it seems like the easiest move.
The trick seems to be not to put anyone named Carlos in charge.
How have they not figured this out yet? It’s so obvious!
I blame Michael and Peter Taylor. Just imagine if that had never happened.
I respond to your transitory transitoriness with Alexisonfire’s “No Transitory” , which should have been what you were listening to while writing this.
There is no single event or decision that has led Nissan into their current situation.
Fortunately the plant shutdown is planned over a year out which will aid in the displaced workers finding other employment. They will probably start or have already begun not filling vacancies as personnel leave or retire at the facility. There will also most likely be a few “key personnel” that will be asked to stay to the end off the shutdown that will receive “retention bonuses”.
The primary concern in any plant shutdown is the fate of the workforce and the impact on the surrounding community as the the tax base shrinks and utilities have to deal with decreased demands.
The Penguins are to blame for NISSAN’S shit show.
They have been ripping us off and raping us for years because they don’t contribute to NATO or pay any tariffs.
But they will pay bigly when the tariffs for them kick in.
NISSAN is a ghost company to me now for many years.
Just my POV, but can’t recall anything from them that actually caught my interest.
They have become the Kmart of auto brands.
And everyone here knows that Kmart sucks…except for the under wear.
I read this as the Penguins hockey team (because capitalized) and was very confused for a transitory moment.
We are going after them next….
Would you even be surprised at this point
I find it humorous how I just cannot seem to ever connect with the music choices here. It’s either a meh, or my god I hate this song, sort of thing. It sucks because I love finding new music.
As for Nissan, terrible leadership. Their past and present leadership got them in this position with junk cars that no one wants and now their workers will have to pay for their mistakes. It’s a terrible situation.
I’m hit-or-miss on the music of TMD. Unless Hundal is filling in, he typically nails it with the music vibes.
Is Alex Warren’s voice in this song heavily autotuned, or does his natural vocal timbre contain autotune-like qualities? Anyone hear Warren sing live without a sound system?
I’ve heard Warren G, if that counts?
And I almost always connect with the music choices here. Except today. Maybe I’m just sick of that song already.
Regardless of “connection,” I’d as a rule rather hear something I don’t know than something I’ve heard a zillion times (even if I love it), so I really like this element of TMD. Especially when the contributor explains why they’ve included the song, which is conspicuously absent today.
That said: Yeah, I follow up and listen to more on my own approximately four percent of the time.
Looking for high quality music recommendations on a car site is sort of like looking for a good cheeseburger at your local Japanese restaurant. You might get lucky once in a while and experience something great, but it’s not something you should expect.
US-market NV200 vans were made in Mexico, not Japan 😛
Nissan should’ve closed their British factory in Sunderland rather than one in Japan.
Now I’m just waiting for the Jatco Xtronic CVT account on here to not accept any blame LOL
With 2 models in the top 5 best-seller list last year in the UK (Juke & Qashqai), I think it makes sense keeping that plant around.
and the US having a trade agreement with the UK, it helps a lot for future models.
Also a good point. Honda closed their UK plant a few years ago, if they had a crystal ball into today I wonder if they might have kept it going for that reason.
The trade agreement was 10% for only the first 100k cars in a year, so shipping high volume vehicles from the UK isn’t very viable. It would also make the British brands quite unhappy.
they could always make Nissans in one of Renault’s factories.
I should add that Nissan’s previous international market leadership in making very cheap compact vehicles with questionable quality is being eaten by Chinese manufacturers who can do the same, sometimes with better fuel efficiency (hybrids and PHEVs) to boot. Even a smaller company with a questionable reputation can make Nissan quality cars nowadays, but the Sentra’s ubiquity and Corolla-like parts availability and cheapness was the only thing keeping Nissan afloat in China, as the sedan is still in the top 5 overall best sellers in China even today.
When they sued Uzi Nissan over his website, karma baby.
Also building American quality cars in Japan, they never really achieved quality on par with Toyota or Honda, more at Mitsubishi levels, which if the cars aren’t at least interesting, where’s the draw?
The draw, at least for a little while, was “We put the VQ35/37 in everything MOAR POWAR!”
And then a couple years later, almost every single turbo 4 in the mainstream market was making similar numbers (let’s ignore the inherent reliability of an NA V6 here, most buyers don’t care from a marketing POV).
Getting a Stellantis precog vibe from the path Nissan is rolling down.
I honestly think if they hadn’t led with lawsuit threats they could’ve leased the URL from him, paid in sheetmetal. A car or two a year would be cheap to an automaker and highly valuable for a private citizen/small business owner.
They should’ve kept upping the offer until Uzi just couldn’t refuse anymore.
How many times did I go to Nissan.com and end up at the lawyer’s website?
Whoever decided Nissan’s development pause in the mid-late ’10s, which resulted in poor/outdated product and lack of good modern powertrain options. It caused Nissan to lose any kind of EV R&D lead it gained from the Leaf, overreliance on CVTs to boost CAFE MPG instead of engine development, and the eventual lack of alternate options for 180-300hp engines once the VC/KR engine line proved to be an unreliable mess. It also led to Nissans & Infinitis having very outdated infotainment systems for a long time, which killed any hope of nice interiors carrying Infiniti through until better powertrains became available. No hybrids in North America, and the series hybrid tech they have overseas isn’t super efficient (but definitely reliable). Also, why wasn’t there an Infiniti Ariya reskin, the higher margins would’ve helped the program.
This is probably correct. The biggest issue Nissan still has today IMHO is powertrains. Products like the Rogue, Altima, Pathfinder, etc. are actually competitive in a lot of ways. The current Infinitis are beautiful and have well appointed interiors. The Z is a design home run.
…but under the hood everything falls apart. Their entry level stuff is still saddled with bad, failure prone CVTs and wheezy engines with 0 options for electrification. Well deserved reputation for antisocial driving aside, the Rogue is a nice looking, well equipped car…but there’s no way in hell I’d risk it with the VC Turbo/Jatco CVT combo compared to what Honda and Toyota have on offer.
Sure, it’s cheaper up front, but it won’t be long term. The Pathfinder is similar…it’s a good looking, well appointed car but who wants to live with an ancient VQ engine and 20ish MPG when you can get a hybrid Highlander or Santa Fe that gets well into the 30s? Outside of hardcore off roaders and truck bros the old, thirsty NA V6 just doesn’t cut it…and those people aren’t shopping for 3 row crossovers.
The VC Turbo garbage is an even bigger joke in the Infiniti products. Imagine having the audacity to charge $60,000 for an SUV that has the same engine as a fucking Altima. You can get a B58 or *checks notes* a rattly, unreliable turbo 4 from an econobox. Gee, tough decision!
What’s somehow an even bigger joke, as you imply, is that there was a time when Nissan even had a lead with regard to electrification….and while it’s dated now the VQ was state of the art when it came out. But Nissan couldn’t be bothered to develop things any further.
The Pathfinder still having the VQ is one area they aren’t really behind the segment with almost every competitor lacking a hybrid, plus the VQ has an edge in MPG over many turbo 4s. The Santa Fe is much smaller, the hybrid Palisade is around the corner but will be hard to get to start, the hybrid Toyotas you can barely get at all and prior to this it was a V6 hybrid and not a 30+ mpg vehicle for a long time, like during current Pathfinder development – so it wasn’t a foregone conclusion. Not like the Rogue, which briefly did offer a hybrid at the same time the RAV4 introduced one and trying again would have been worthwhile instead of ending up a generation+ behind.
The large-vehicle hybrid setup that Honda is developing would be a great way to slide in on the larger crossovers if they do still team up.
The large vehicle hybrid setup would be a game changer. The Honda haulers are objectively excellent in every way except fuel economy…and in that realm they’re among the worst in their classes. IMHO no appliance car should still be hovering around 20 MPG in 2025. There’s just no excuse anymore.
Selfishly I hope the Passport gets a hybrid option but I don’t think it will because they’ll sell every single Odyssey and Pilot hybrid they make before they even hit lots.
A friend of mine is probably going to go GH Hybrid later this year but asked if there were any other hybrid options that they hadn’t found. Mazda is the only one but the Toyota is going to be better for their use case for a few reasons. Fortunately they have time to plan it out and shop around.
Passport getting the hybrid is a real coin toss. On one hand Ody/Pilot are first priority like you said. OTOH it could line up against the Toyotas and any other electrified adventure-y models, like if H/K expands the hybrid to adventure-y trims.
I guess CR-V Trailsport might be considered a trial run for such a setup even though it’s more of an appearance package.
It sucks that the Grand Cherokee 4Xe is such an abomination because it would be a very compelling product if had been left in the oven a little longer. The only other PHEV family hauler SUV is the CX90 and it’s not like it’s been smooth sailing for that model either. But you know…Stellantis gonna Stellantis.
We’ll be shopping in this class in a year or so and are going to look at the CX90 (the mild hybrid, my wife’s commutes are longer than the PHEV range so it doesn’t seem worth the trouble), Highlander Hybrid, and Sienna. If the Pilot or Odyssey hybrid comes out before we’re shopping they’ll be added as well.
I want the Sienna because van. Duh. But this will be the wife’s daily so she has final say within reason. She asked if we could consider a new XC90 PHEV and I shot that down immediately. If you won’t let me incinerate money on a Porsche then dammit we’re not incinerating $80,000 on a mom mobile.
I’ll be due not long after her because my car is going to be too small for us….hell it kind of already is. I’ve agreed to get a sensible SUV if it means I can get a weekend car down the road. I absolutely love everything about the Passport except the wretched gas mileage.
18/23 is just unacceptable in a crossover in 2025. The BOF 4Runner is somehow more efficient. But a hybrid one? If that existed and the Trailsport package/hybrid weren’t mutually exclusive I’d buy one tomorrow.
I actually genuinely like the styling of the new Rogue, inside and out. But the mechanicals, meh.
Savagegeese reviewed it, and Mark actually liked it, he said it was a good car for the price with the caveat of the questionable drivetrain.
Yeah, the Rogue seems like a great car to *lease* for normies who just want a cushy appliance. It’s interesting that the Rogue’s 1.5T 3-cyl makes a segment leading 201hp and 225lbft of torque (mid 180s hp & tq is average), while the 2.0T 4-cyl version has similar output to any other brand’s while still being as unreliable. The Rogue also gets a relatively high 33mpg combined which is 10% higher than all non-hybrids in class, which I guess was successful in tiding them over CAFE-wise until one arrives later.
This here – even with quality gaffes, throughout the 2000s Nissan was pushing something of a stylish, tech-forward position. I don’t think any models introduced after 2010 were reviewed better than their predecessors: the styling started to get lumpier, they leaned in to more cheapening, and competitors leapfrogged them. A bit of a 1-2 punch on that last one; Honda & Toyota had been knocked at the turn of the decade and turned things around over the 2010s, H/K took on a style-forward techy role. Meanwhile Nissan product cycles averaged at least a year or two longer than others. Even a loyal buyer isn’t so inclined to buy the same basic design almost 3x over, the conquest buyer certainly isn’t going to be swayed.
I’d argue that it was even earlier, sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s when they decided to quit making interesting cars with good quality and instead chasing volume, volume, volume. There were still some good cars in the lineup, but no development money so they just withered on the vine.
Tesla trial: This is the future I was expecting for FSD (or anything around Level 2+), and I think it’ll be the tip of the iceberg as more and more Teslas make their way into the used market — plus all the other autonomous tech.
I can’t rehash it all, but essentially I agree that widespread FSD would reduce the total number of crashes and fatalities in the long run. But in human nature, people want blame and accountability for mistakes. The more autonomy we accept, the less accountability there will inevitably be. This breaks our longstanding moral sense of justice.
OTOH, maybe we’ll just get used to robots killing people every day, but since that’s the cornerstone of most modern sci fi (iRobot, Terminator, Robocop, etc) I highly doubt we’re okay with two tons of nameless, faceless code rolling around out there killing people.
Nissan’s problem is that once they reached infinity, there was no place left to go.
But they do deserve a Laurel for reaching infinity.
I’m sorry, I can’t Leaf a pun thread alone.
You deserve some Kicks for that!
Puns are the Altima-t form of humor
I was gonna steal a March on you but I Note that you, being the Pathfinder, already used all of the Cherry choices.
(I am choosing not to use the easy ones like Echo, Expert, Civilian, or Junior)
I don’t want to sound like some Bluebird of happiness, but I think there’s still a chance of Sunny days ahead.
Also: Cube.
I’m sure they if the look hard enough they will find a new Frontier.
They had reached their Maxima, in other words.
Experts estimate there are between 210 and 810 possibilities left, with 510 the likeliest total.
To Infinity….and Beyond!! Lol
Nowadays, they might have to downsize their corporate headquarters so much it’ll barely be recognizable in the Skyline
With inflation, I’m always more focused on the “durable goods” metric, which obviously excludes Jaguar and Audi.
The fault lies with the French.
The tie-up with Renault (Ghosn aside) meant it was a less nimble company. That is my inflection point. Ghosn was just fuel on the fire.
I don’t want to say the Jatco CVT’s, but the Jatco CVT’s…
And no hybrids. The Leaf was short on range. Batteries faded fast. The Variable Compression engine is on the recall list. Right up there with V8 6 4. Great when it works, but junk when it doesn’t. At least they made the V 8 6 4 run on 8 all the time. No such luck with the VC engine. And yes…The Jatco CVTs. The Frontier the best vehicle they have left. Maybe the Pathfinder. The Z car not selling. It’s downhill from here. We will see a couple more manufacturers disappear into history before it’s all over. Jaguar! Are you next?
And the hybrid system they sell in most other markets is not very advanced, basically a small battery EREV.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it very similar to what Honda uses?
Honda has a clutch to connect the engine directly to the driven wheels at one ratio only – highway speeds, cruising. The Nissan system lacks a clutch. Probably more of a city, in-town solution. Small battery, small engine that I assume shuts off at stop lights, like a Prius.
Like Weston said, the Honda system has a 1-2 gears for the engine to clutch into at higher speeds where engine-off EV mode opportunities are rare and transmission efficiency matters. The Nissan system lacks this, which will result in highways mpgs lower than ICE only cars while also requiring more transmission cooling. It works perfectly fine for lower speeds and non-highways, which suits the driving habits and small cars in the markets it’s sold in.