Nissan CEO Steps Down, Giving Honda Merger Another Chance

Nissan has made a huge move and replaced their current CEO with a veteran of Nissan and a real car guy, Ivan Espinosa. Makoto Uchida resigned under pressure as the automaker struggles with falling sales and high debt. The failed Honda merger was blamed on him. New CEO Ivan Espinosa may revive stalled merger talks with Honda, which could create one of the world’s largest automakers. Mitsubishi’s involvement remains uncertain, but negotiations could accelerate soon.

Ivan Espinosa joined Nissan in 2003 as a product planner in the brand’s Mexican division. He’s held a dozen positions within the brand since, so he brings a massive amount of experience to the CEO’s office, but the problems that he will need to solve are massive as well.

We recently talked about Nissan’s challenges, and that insiders admitted that the company had “12 to 14 months to survive” if it didn’t find an investor, as executives announced plans to slash 9,000 jobs and reduce the group’s global production capacity by 20%. Nissan is facing headwinds in the United States and China, two of the biggest markets in the world.

In China, Nissan is among the many global carmakers that have lost ground amid a cutthroat price war and consumers’ shift away from conventional gas-powered vehicles. Its global sales in January fell 5.9% from a year earlier.

The merger with Honda blew up, and it still hasn’t found an investor. In theory, Nissan now has less than a year to live. So, what’s next?

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