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
V6 — because of towing requirements? Even the Subie Ascent with a 4-banger will (properly equipped) tow 5000 lbs.
I like their current altima and maxima cars, and their z-cars have been pretty popular for being fast and sporty.
The article does NOT say EV’s erased all of Nissan’s profits. It says that was one factor (and it will become larger.)
Granted that the article does not discuss Nissan’s other problems, which to be fair & thorough it should.
I recently needed to rent a car and all they had left was a Nissan Rogue. I was very underwhelmed by the lack of response and power and was glad to turn it in after a couple days. It’s a small SUV that reminded me of driving a minivan, yuck.
IX
My last two cars have been Z cars and I have loved them. in fact I’m considering buying another .... plus...I have never driven a manual transmission. I had a car rental a few months ago and I hated it.
So ...I’m considering a new Z car.
The electric car federal boondoggle, the other communist gift that keeps on wrecking economies and businesses. When will people learn? These CEOs are dumb as fck. I could have saved Nissan for a 100th of the pay of their idiots calling the shots.
Friends don’t let friends buy GM products. They are laying off and will make them in China now after all those tax subsidies, yikes.
Will not miss them, never owned one, never will. So they are ugly, have no appeal, and they introduced a model that does not sell. So what is the problem? The free market, Laissez-faire economics. The only way to compete against that is to eliminate it...............They have succeeded in a few countries....
A brand new Nissan Dealership just opened here in West Bend, WI. <<
is it called...
“BUGGY WHIP MOTORS”
I just purchased a Nissan Frontier from Cerritos Nissn which is about 30 miles south of LA. They appear to be selling quite a few vehicles when I was there.
This doesn’t pass the smell test to me.
I’m not sure. There are about 20 or 30 articles about it ...all of which say that Nissan and others are getting hammered by horrible sales figures in USA and Chinas which are the two largest car markets in the world.
https://jalopnik.com/things-are-extremely-bad-at-nissan-1836691415
Killing the automobile, in all forms, is a liberal's Utopian Fantasy.
The article implies that the leaf is a major contributor and
It’s a garbage argument. You don’t lose market share because a car you have been making for over a decade and has always been a niche product sells more or less. You lose market share due to lack of marketing (not true for Nissan), bad products.. not true for Nissan, new or better competition, or other things
This article is the product of someone with a political axe to grind, nothing more. It’s garbage.
Margins on small cars, all small cars, are small or negative. Hell last I checked Chrysler was losing money on every fiat it sold in the us.. but the sale of those cars help them meet Fleet CAFE standard that allow them to sell big suvs that have big margins... Nissan Armada anyone?
This whole article is a joke, it’s writer is a hack at best and an ignoramus at worst.
It’s Renault’s fault.
I own a 2003 Frontier that I purchased new at the time.The thing still runs and I’ll drive it till the wheels fall off.
Sad to hear. The Nissan Titan was our favorite truck we have owned. It just was so bad on gas mileage that we had to look at other trucks and have always compared the Ford, Chevy and GMC trucks to the quality of the Nissan and found them lacking. After hurricane Harvey (when all vehicles in this area were lost) we went to Nissan and they didn’t have any Titans to be bought. We were so desperate that my husband talked me into looking at a Dodge pick up. He had to nag me a couple days because I’d heard so much negative about Dodge, but I must say I am pleasantly surprised. They only had trucks on their lot because someone there had the gumption to bring in some from a Dallas dealership.
And you didn’t mention the ethanol abortion.
how much of that lack of response is due to the fact that it is a rental. I know how I drive rentals. that’ll tear up a vehicle in a hurry.
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