Nissan aims to bring 30 new vehicles around the world over the next 3 years.
“Faced with extreme market volatility, Nissan is taking decisive actions guided by the new plan to ensure sustainable growth and profitability.” CEO Makoto Uchida laid out an updated, ambitious business plan for the automaker called ‘ARC’, evolving on its business plan through fiscal year 2023 and bridging its long-term goals, called “Nissan Ambition 2030”. Among these medium-term plans set to play out into 2026, the company aims to bring 16 new electrified vehicles and 14 new internal-combustion models to various global markets. Of that total, seven “all-new” vehicles will make their way to North America.
Through fiscal year 2026, which ends in March 2027, Nissan says it wants to boost its global sales by 1 million units, grow operating margins over 6% and increase total shareholder returns to over 30%. Facing intense competition, the company also mentioned it would leverage strategic partnerships, both as part of the alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi and through new partnerships in Japan and the U.S. (Nissan was reportedly in talks with Fisker Inc. to launch such a partnership, but those negotiations collapsed, according to the startup’s announcement Monday.)
For its U.S. operations, Nissan says it plans to invest $200 million into an “integrated customer experience”, in addition to boosting cross-region sales in the Americas by 330,000 units compared to fiscal year 2023.
So what’s coming?
Beyond what we know about this year’s launches, including the new Kicks shown above and likely a new Armada, we can only guess at what seven vehicles the company has up its sleeve. Nissan did say it plans seven all-new models, so there’s some wiggle room to interpret whether that means vehicles completely separate from anything that’s available today — like a new Xterra — or generational updates of existing models, like a new Murano. However, the company further said it plans to refresh 78% of its U.S. lineup by 2026.
Globally, Nissan is aiming for 53% of its product portfolio to be electrfied, while the remaining 47% will be gas-powered models. The company does not currently have any hybrid or plug-in hybrid models in the U.S., though it seems that will likely change in the next few years. The company does sell its “e-Power” hybrid system integrating an electric motor and battery pack with a gasoline engine in some overseas markets.
The second prong of Nissan’s plan, laying out longer-term goals through fiscal year 2030, aims to cut EV production costs. Eventually, the automaker says it will cut costs of its next-generation electric cars by 30% relative to what it currently costs to build the to the current Ariya. Eventually, one major goal is to achieve EV price parity with gasoline cars by the end of the decade. This plan, Uchida says, “illustrates our continuous progression and ability to navigate changing market conditions…[It] will enable us to go further and faster in driving value and competitiveness.”
By and large, automakers have been pivoting away from a full-EV approach to electrifying its product portfolio. As part of those changing market conditions, companies like Nissan are instead rolling out increasingly popular (and, in the short-term, more profitable) hybrid options for customers instead.
