There may be one less brand of cars on the road in 12 months. A major car manufacturer is headed towards collapse with experts ringing the alarm bells. Experts are saying that it only has 12 months to survive.
We’re talking about the major car manufacturer Nissan. The company employs more than 20,000 people globally. However, it appears to be on a downturn. Last month, Nissan announced it was closing 20 percent of its capacity as well laying off 9,000 people.
It’s trying to reduce costs by $2.6 billion. However, insiders are saying that it won’t be enough to avoid financial ruin for the car manufacturer. Cost-cutting measures have affected the top brass with Chief executive Makoto Uchida taking a 50 percent. Meanwhile, chief financial officer Stephen Ma is stepping down.
According to the Financial Times, Nissan may need a government headline to stay in business. But it could end up owing $5.6 billion. One insider said, “We have 12 or 14 months to survive. This is going to be tough. And in the end, we need Japan and the US to be generating cash.”
Nissan’s head of manufacturing Hideyuki Sakamoto told a news conference, “Globally, we currently have 25 vehicle production lines. Our current plan is to reduce the operational maximum capacity of these 25 lines by 20 percent.”
Car Manufacturer Headed To Ruin
He continued, “One specific method for this is to change the line speed and shift patterns, thereby increasing the efficiency of operational personnel.”
Meanwhile, Uchida said, “This has been a lesson learned and we have not been able to keep up with the times. We weren’t able to foresee that hybrid electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids would be so popular.”
The company called on the U.K. to loosen fines on car manufacturers missing targeted sales numbers on its electric and hybrid vehicles as part of its Zero Emissions Vehicles Mandate. The fines would make a already bad situation worse for the car manufacturer.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said it would support car manufacturers.
She told broadcasters last week, ‘We are committed to the 2030 target for phasing out the purchase of new petrol and diesel cars, but it is really important within that to make sure that we get the balance right and have proper support for the automotive sector, for the car industry in Britain.
‘We have just launched a consultation to look at the plans that we inherited from the previous government which would have meant fines for businesses that didn’t sell a proportion of electric vehicles, because we want to keep investment, we want to keep jobs in Britain.’
