Nissan projected a small net profit this year after posting another huge loss for the second consecutive year, with the Japanese troubled automaker suggesting it has “moved beyond recovery.”
Like other Japanese carmakers, Nissan is being squeezed by U.S. tariffs, the Middle East war, and fierce competition from Chinese rivals, but it also has had its own problems.
The company, which is closing factories and shedding thousands of jobs, said it ended the 2025–26 business year 533 billion yen ($3.4 billion) in the red.
This followed an even larger loss in the previous year of 671 billion yen.
Operating profit in 2025–26 dipped to 58 million yen from 69.8 million yen the year before.
This year, Nissan predicted it would post a net profit of 20 million yen, an operating profit of 200 million yen, and revenues of 13 trillion yen, up from 12 trillion yen.
“FY2025 marked a year of steady execution under Re:Nissan, where we strengthened our foundation and began to see tangible progress in our financial performance,” CEO Ivan Espinosa said.
“We have moved beyond recovery and are entering a phase of growth,” Espinosa added.
Nissan has faced numerous challenges in recent years, including the 2018 arrest of former chairman Carlos Ghosn, who later fled Japan concealed in an audio equipment box.
A merger with Japanese rival Honda had been seen as a potential lifeline, but talks collapsed after Honda proposed making Nissan a subsidiary.
Facing continued losses and having been slow to transition to electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid vehicles, Nissan launched a restructuring program in late 2024 to close factories and cut 20,000 jobs by 2028.
Damage to Brand Power
According to Tatsuo Yoshida, analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, Nissan’s key challenges are declining product competitiveness in North America, rapidly falling sales in China, and weakened brand power.
He noted that these issues cannot be solved in the short term and that the success of new product launches must eventually translate into sustainable profitability.
Yoshida also compared Nissan with Honda, which is expected to report its first operating loss since 1957 due to a 2.5 trillion yen impairment charge related to its EV strategy.
Meanwhile, Toyota forecast a 22% decline in net income for the current fiscal year.
Yoshida emphasized that Honda still maintains strong internal combustion engine (ICE) and hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) products, as well as solid profitability in motorcycles and financial services.
Japan also agreed to invest $550 billion in the United States by 2029 in exchange for reducing proposed tariffs from 25% to 15%, although U.S. trade policies continue to evolve.
