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The Chief Financial Officer of Nissan has reportedly resigned after its CEO declared ‘Emergency Mode’ amid significant sales and financial declines.
Embattled Japanese car maker Nissan has seen its first significant leadership reshuffle after entering a self-declared "emergency mode" with the resignation of its Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
It follows sensational comments reportedly made by an unnamed senior Nissan executive last week that the company has just "12 or 14 months to survive" as its debts mount.
Bloomberg reports Stephen Ma – who has been Nissan CFO since 2019 – will step down from the role, although the car maker has not made any official announcement.
If proven correct, Ma is the second significant car company executive to leave their post in a matter of days.
In November 2024, Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida announced the car maker was being placed into "emergency mode", after significant sales declines in the US and China.
A staggering pre-tax profit decline of 304 per cent – with the company facing record debt repayments of $US1.6 billion ($AU2.5 billion) in 2024 and $US5.6 billion ($AU8.7 billion) in 2025 – also saw the CEO take a voluntary 50 per cent pay cut.
Further steps included slashing 9000 jobs from its nearly 135,000-strong global workforce, reducing production capacity by 20 per cent, while also selling part of its stake in Mitsubishi, part of an alliance with Renault and Nissan.
The CFO’s reported departure news comes days after Nissan announced its latest sales and production figures on 28 November showing considerable falls in China and Europe, but more positive results in the US.
While global sales were up 0.1 per cent year-to-date, according to Nissan’s own figures China saw its largest decline in October 2024 compared to the prior October at 16.5 per cent – above its year-to-date fall of 10 per cent in the world’s largest car market.
The second-largest drop was seen in Europe, where October 2024 sales were down 14.2 per cent for the month but up 5.3 per cent year-to-date.
In the United States, Nissan’s October 2024 result was up 13.4 per cent, pushing the year-to-date figure more strongly into positive territory with 1.8 per cent growth.
This was helped by the arrival of the new generation Nissan Kicks small SUV – not sold in Australia but broadly similar in size to the Nissan Qashqai offered here – into US showrooms in September.
More new metal on sale in North America before the end of the year includes an all-new Armada (due in Australia as the Y63 Nissan Patrol in 2026) and Murano SUV, as well as a refreshed Nissan Frontier – a Navara-sized pick-up, with a new generation Navara due in Australia in 2025 or 2026.
For Nissan’s best-selling US model, the Rogue – sold here as the Nissan X-Trail – the off-road-focused Rock Creek version was added in November, while a plug-in hybrid version using technology from Mitsubishi is planned for 2025.
In 2026, Nissan plans introduce e-Power to the US for the first time – likely in the Rogue, with the X-Trail e-Power having been sold in Australia since 2023.
The X-Trail is Nissan’s best-selling vehicle in Australia, with the latest VFACTS sales figures showing growth of 11.8 per cent to the end of November 2024, with the Nissan brand ranked ninth year-to-date.
