Wednesday February 11, 2009

Nissan to slash 20000 jobs in mass layoff, sees annual loss in 2009

news.yahoo.com :

Nissan announced 20,000 job cuts Monday [9 Feb 2009], the deepest reduction among Japan's automakers in battling the global downturn, as it forecast its first annual loss in 9 years. CEO Carlos Ghosn said the latest problems were industrywide and due to the global economic slump and the appreciating yen. Nissan now expects a 265 billion yen ($2.9 billion) net loss for the fiscal year through March 2009 - joining a raft of other Japanese corporate giants, including Toyota, Toshiba and Sony, in slashing jobs and projecting annual losses. Ghosn said Nissan will cut 20,000 jobs worldwide, or 8.5% of its 235,000-strong global work force, by March 2010.

Toyota and Honda, which both have gas-electric hybrids going on sale this year, are better positioned to boost sales when the recovery kicks in. Nissan does not have a comparable hybrid model. Toyota, which is projecting a 350 billion yen ($3.85 billion) net loss for the fiscal year through March, its first such loss since 1950, is reducing contract workers in Japan from 8,800 in June last year to 3,000 in March. Honda is faring relatively better and is expecting to stay in the black, with a 80 billion yen ($879 million) profit. But it will cut the number of temporary workers at its Japan plants from 3,100 to zero by the end of April.

- Nissan appears to have made a strategic error with its glaring lack of a hybrid car model of any sort, in its attempt to jump directly to PHEV's and EV's. Granted, they do have their typical Japanese qualities including cost-effectiveness, reliability and such. Technology-wise, they have their so-called Extroid toroidal CVT which by all accounts is pretty respectable, but it would take a lot more than that to take on Honda's IMA and Toyota's HSD hybrid platforms with their over 10-year lead.

I wouldn't count them out entirely since they do produce stunning examples of design such as the Nissan GTR above, renewing hope amongst their fans. Nissan GTR's tend to be the exception rather than the norm however. They need to work on their bread-and-butter models, especially in this harsh and unforgiving economic environment.

See also :

1. Nissan, NEC to make hybrid batteries
2. Nissan, NEC to mass produce lithium-ion batteries for cars
3. Nissan starts PHEV plug-in hybrid development, to introduce electric car concept at 2008 Paris Motor show

(2009-02-11 00:36:06 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

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