Nissan slashes 20,000 jobs, closes seven plants in global overhaul

In a sweeping restructuring move, newly appointed Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa has announced the closure of seven out of the company’s 17 global production plants, including facilities in Japan, as part of a strategy to streamline operations and reduce costs in response to mounting financial losses.

Espinosa, who replaced Makoto Uchida as president of the automotive group at the start of the new fiscal year on April 1, confirmed the major shift during a press conference on May 13, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Uchida’s replacement by the Mexican national marks a significant leadership change for the struggling Japanese carmaker.

"One of the tasks is to cut costs. And the first task is to restructure production. This includes consolidating our plants around the world, including Japan. This will require reducing the number of plants from 17 to 10," Espinosa told reporters.

As part of this restructuring, Nissan will also scale back its production capacity to 2.5 million vehicles annually by fiscal year 2027. However, Espinosa noted that the company is planning for a flexible production model that allows for a potential increase by 500,000 units should market conditions improve.

In a move that confirms earlier reports, Espinosa also announced that Nissan plans to cut approximately 20,000 jobs globally by the beginning of fiscal year 2027, which starts on April 1, 2027. This represents about 15% of the company's workforce.

“About 65 per cent of this will be in production,” Espinosa clarified.

Acknowledging the impact of the job cuts, the CEO described the decision as “extremely unfortunate and would not have been taken if it was not necessary.” He emphasised that Nissan is committed to supporting its employees during the transition.

“While this decision is necessary to improve operational capabilities, we intend to provide the necessary support to employees during the period of change,” he said.

The cuts will occur both within Japan and across Nissan’s international operations. The current layoff plan follows an earlier round of job reductions, bringing the total number of affected employees to roughly 20,000.

The restructuring comes in the wake of catastrophic financial results. At the end of April, Nissan reported a historic net loss of approximately 750 billion yen (around $5.2 billion) for fiscal year 2024, which ended on March 31, 2025—far exceeding the company's own forecast of 80 billion yen (about $562.1 million).

By Tamilla Hasanova