Nissan’s recovery is running into trouble in its biggest market. The Japanese carmaker said on Wednesday that operating profit for the three months to the end of September fell 96% from a year earlier to just 2.1 billion yen (about $13 million), as weak sales in China, higher raw material and parts costs, and the loss of a one-off benefit from lower US emissions-related expenses weighed on earnings.
The result missed analysts’ expectations by a wide margin. The median forecast in a poll of eight analysts surveyed by LSEG had been for operating profit of 60.1 billion yen. Revenue rose 8.2% to 3.1 trillion yen, but the company sold 593,000 cars in the quarter, down 0.2% from a year earlier, with sales in China falling sharply.
For the first half of the financial year, Nissan did return to operating profit, reporting 80 billion yen against a 27.7 billion yen loss a year earlier, helped by 110 billion yen of cost savings under its Re:Nissan restructuring plan. Its net loss narrowed to 39.7 billion yen from 221.9 billion yen. But the second quarter laid bare how fragile that recovery remains.
China is the central problem. Nissan said weaker demand, a faster-than-expected shift to new energy vehicles and intensifying competition were putting greater pressure on sales than it had anticipated. It cut its global sales forecast for the year to March 2027 to between 2.97 million and 3 million vehicles, down from 3.15 million — the second cut in three months. In the first half, global sales fell 5%, largely because of a 15% plunge in China, even as sales in the United States, which account for about a third of the total, rose 6%.
The company is responding by cutting petrol car production and dealer stock in China while pushing its N-series electric and hybrid range and expanding exports. It also raised its sales outlook for the US and Japan, where momentum remains strong, and held its full-year operating profit forecast at 200 billion yen, expecting 120 billion yen of profit in the second half from higher volumes and new model launches.
Chief executive Ivan Espinosa, who took over in April 2025, has cut jobs, manufacturing capacity and the number of models in Nissan’s line-up in an effort to restore profitability after years of scandal and management turmoil. Shares in Nissan fell more than 5% in Tokyo trading on Thursday morning as investors digested the results.
Sources: Reuters; Nissan Motor Co. (https://www.reuters.com/commentary/breakingviews/china-is-ground-zero-radical-nissan-revival-2026-11-12/ and https://6ix.com/news/nissan-motor-reports-first-half-progress-reaffirms-full-year-financial-outlook)
