Posted on 07/27/2019 9:43:24 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Some very bad news today – for Nissan.
Profits are down 99 percent. Not a typo. A near-total wipeout – which triggered the wiping out of 12,500 jobs, the immediate suspension of manufacturing in Indonesia and Spain and an announcement that Japan’s second-largest car company will reduce its model lineup by at least 10 percent by 2022.
Nissan’s U.S. market share is down to 7.9 percent; it was 8.1 percent a year ago.
It is quite possible there won’t be a Nissan by 2022.
So, what’s gone awry?
One thing – a thing which is going awry generally – is the monecy being wasted on electric cars for which there is no market. Or rather, which there’s no money to be made from making.
Nissan’s Leaf – the company’s first electric car – cost Nissan almost as much money to develop as it continues to lose “selling” it. And when the federal subsidy for electric car “purchases” goes away, it will cost Nissan – and everyone else “selling” electric cars – even more as people decline to “buy” them at all.
Which will happen, because the ending of the subsidies amounts to a $7,500 effective increase in the cost to the buyer – the price of “green,” as it were.
Nissan, et al, will then have to resort to discounts of their own equivalent to the federal subsidy, just to get the electric turduckens off their lots.
This would be no big deal if it were only a handful of electric Turduckens. But because “climate change,” Nissan and everyone else has been forced to commit billions to development of hundreds of thousands of electric cars they won’t be able to sell – unless the ability of people to buy them somehow increases by 30-50 percent or more, this being the rough difference (all else being equal) between an electric car and an otherwise equivalent non-electric car.
Who’s going to ante up?
The going-away subsidy all by itself is equivalent in value to 3,125 gallons of regular unleaded at current prices (about $2.40 per gallon). That fills up a 12 gallon gas tank about 260 times – enough to take you 93,000 and change miles at 30 MPG.
However much people may believe the sky is about to fall because “climate change,” most aren’t going to walk away from what amounts to free fuel for nearly 100,000 miles of driving – by not driving an electric car.
The 12,500 jobs that just went up in smoke – along with Nissan’s profits and possibly Nissan itself – are just the beginning.
A real scheisse show is percolating.
But there is a silk lining to this sow’s ear – for the moment.
It is that you stand to score a deal on any Nissan (excepting the Leaf). The news about Nissan’s precarious finances is already spreading like an oil slick on the ocean and dealers will be increasingly desperate to offload what they can while they can.
And here’s the crazy thing:
Much of what Nissan sells is actually good stuff. In part, because it hasn’t got much of the new stuff – things like turbo fours in big trucks and direct injection and ASS in everything. Nissan is also the only car company whose new cars let you drive without “buckling up for saaaaaaaaaaaafety.”
Well, without badgering you like an annoying mother-in-law via a buzzer that won’t shut up until you do.
All the more reason to shop now.
While you still can
The Downtown office is open and I go there for service. Glendale closed, moved everything off the lot. then a month later they have some sort of temporary entity in there.
I’ve owned two Infinitis...the more recent was 10 years ago. Quite nice in fact.Ten years ago Consumer reports used to rate Nissan and Infiniti quite highly...today the opposite is true.
If Carlos Ghosn had an epicanthic fold, Nisson would be in much better shape.
No way was Japan INC going to allow an outsider to control a major Japenese corp.
BS through and through.
Did he pad his expenses? Maybe?
Eight months and still in a Japenese jail?
And the guy from Olympus???
Carlos Ghosn controlled 2 Japanese corporations: 1) Nissan and 2) Mitsubishi.
He was supposed to be a prodigy at rescuing/restructuring corporations, but all he seemed to do was get a lot of Japanese drinking his Kool-aid while he jetted around the world like a Saudi prince.
while he jetted around the world like a Saudi prince.
Nice work if you can find it!
And he is not sitting in a Japenese jail for the last eight months because of od an earnings report.
Nissan made the SD-33 and SD-33T, which were better than anything Cummins has built to date.
Had to look it up. Hmmm, I had a Scout II. Wish it was one that came with the SD-33T.
What does the author mean by “Nissan is the only company whose new cars will let you drive without buckling up?”
I believe that means that the seat belt alarm will time out after a period, instead of remaining on the entire time belts aren’t buckled.
Sounds good...they could pull away some sales from BMW! But unlikely with current govt. safety standards and CAFE stuff...very expensive to start from the ground up with a “retro look”.
We have a Nissan Rogue with over 100,000 miles on it and never a problem. Rides well on the highway, comfy enough for long trips, peppy enough to merge into traffic. I would gladly buy another one.
Isn’t the Leaf the car that Obama sat in on stage at a ceremony and said “that’s a smooth ride”?
I meant that the Armada is V8. I don’t need a V*, and you’re correct .. I probably don’t need a V6. BUT, I want a full size SUV, which are getting ahrd to find with all of the crossover crap that the manufacturers seem to think we all want.
Subarus seem to have cylinder head (leak) problems.
My 1995 Nissan Pickup has 168,000 miles on it, and I take 2000-mile trips. Alternator has been replaced twice, but NO other repairs (!) in 26 years. Rust is slowly claiming it.
A retired service writer told me 30 years ago, "Nissan is a very high-quality automobile". Seems he was right!
So going out of business is a better option?
Lead had an octane effect in addition to the valve seat lube.
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