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Nissan COO Gupta on post-Ghosn recovery – focus on US, China, Japan; SUVs and EVs but no Z in Europe
Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta (left) next to president and CEO Makoto Uchida (right)
Just like the rest of us, Nissan hasn’t had the best 2020. The fallout from a series of public scandals in 2019 – including the shock ousting, arrest and escape of former president and CEO Carlos Ghosn – continues to make the headlines, but behind the scenes, the company has been haemorrhaging money due to an ageing and bloated lineup. The Japanese carmaker needs a solution, and fast.
Car Magazine sat down with chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta to discuss Nissan’s problems and how it plans to dig itself out of the ground. He explained that under Ghosn, the company had expanded in anticipation of growing automotive sales, targeting an eight per cent share of the global market and an eight per cent profit margin.
Instead, the market shrunk, and Nissan reported a 5.8% share, a 40 billion yen (RM1.56 billion) operating loss and a massive 671 billion yen (RM26.2 billion) net loss in the last financial year.
“We went too fast to expand in the world, anticipating that global auto markets would grow and that our sales performance would be excellent. Both those things didn’t happen,” said Gupta. “As a result, we were landed with aged vehicles, a huge line-up which we could not maintain. It’s all based on investment – if you don’t have the revenue you can’t have [new] cars. It’s a vicious cycle. So what Nissan said is, let’s rationalise.”
Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta (left) next to president and CEO Makoto Uchida (right)
Just like the rest of us, Nissan hasn’t had the best 2020. The fallout from a series of public scandals in 2019 – including the shock ousting, arrest and escape of former president and CEO Carlos Ghosn – continues to make the headlines, but behind the scenes, the company has been haemorrhaging money due to an ageing and bloated lineup. The Japanese carmaker needs a solution, and fast.
Car Magazine sat down with chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta to discuss Nissan’s problems and how it plans to dig itself out of the ground. He explained that under Ghosn, the company had expanded in anticipation of growing automotive sales, targeting an eight per cent share of the global market and an eight per cent profit margin.
Instead, the market shrunk, and Nissan reported a 5.8% share, a 40 billion yen (RM1.56 billion) operating loss and a massive 671 billion yen (RM26.2 billion) net loss in the last financial year.
“We went too fast to expand in the world, anticipating that global auto markets would grow and that our sales performance would be excellent. Both those things didn’t happen,” said Gupta. “As a result, we were landed with aged vehicles, a huge line-up which we could not maintain. It’s all based on investment – if you don’t have the revenue you can’t have [new] cars. It’s a vicious cycle. So what Nissan said is, let’s rationalise.”
