Nissan plans U.S. workforce cuts, delays Honda merger details

Nissan is removing factory shifts and offering buyouts to U.S. workers in an effort to lower costs after a difficult year.

Driving the news: According to Japanese news publication Nikkei, the buyouts could cut up to 1,500 jobs from Nissan’s U.S. workforce, helping it avoid layoffs.

• The move is targeted at the automaker’s U.S. factories, two located in Tennessee and one in Mississippi. The three sites currently employ 11,700 workers.

• Shift cuts are planned for the Rogue SUV and Altima sedan production lines and are scheduled for April and September. Nissan hopes to reduce U.S. production capacity by 25% overall.

Zooming in: The U.S. effort is part of the company’s larger plan to remove 9,000 jobs globally and lower costs by $2.6 billion.

• Nissan is looking to counter a sharp drop in performance after its operating profits plummeted 90% in the first half of 2024. The decline follows sluggish sales in China as the country’s domestic manufacturers take back market share.

• The sharp drop in earnings sparked fears the automaker was headed for bankruptcy. A Financial Times report, citing an unnamed source within the company, estimated the brand had 12 to 14 months to turn things around last November.

Looking ahead: Nissan was potentially saved through its long-standing partnership with Honda, whom it is now in talks with to pursue a merger. However, discussions are proving to be more difficult than the automakers may have imagined.

• The two companies just pushed back their announcement regarding merger details to mid-February, despite originally scheduling the reveal for the end of January.

• According to The Japan Times, the delay is due to scrutiny from Honda, which is pressuring Nissan to pursue aggressive restructuring.

• Honda also saw a moderate profit decline in the first half of 2024 but mitigated the fall with an increase in deliveries and revenue. Its full-year sales rose roughly 9% from 2023.

Become an automotive insider in just 5 minutes.

Get the weekly email that delivers transparent insights into the car market.

Join 90,000+ others now, it's free:

Courtesy transportation is no longer a nice-to-have.

It’s a need-to-have.

A 2024 Car Dealership Guy poll on X found that 31% of respondents prefer an Uber ride to get home when dropping off a car at the dealership.

With Central from Uber for Business, you can request on-demand courtesy rides for your customers, even if they don’t have the Uber app. Coordinate one-way or round-trip rides, monitor trips in real time, set spend caps, and generate reports in one dashboard.

Uber for Business is an easy way to provide an experience customers love, while reducing the costs associated with maintaining shuttles and limiting the liability of loaner vehicles.