Car maker Nissan has posted a 79.1bn yen (£398.1m) operating loss for the first quarter of 2025.
The beleaguered Japanese manufacturer said it continued to face poor sales and the impact of US tariffs. It is the company’s first quarterly operating loss in more than four years but was touted as lower than expected given forecasts of a 200bn yen (£1bn) loss, made when announcing 2024 results in May.
Meanwhile Nissan said the team it has put in place to stage a turnaround of its fortunes has come up with about 4,000 cost-saving ideas. Around 1,600 of those ideas are said to be ready for implementation as part of a huge overhaul of the global business which will see the closing or “consolidation” of five factories and the axing of 20,000 jobs.
The firm’s Sunderland plant, which is among its most productive, is not thought to be among those considered for closure. However, in June it was revealed 250 of the 6,000 jobs at the plant are likely to go.
As part of those local measures, office staff and some floor supervisors are being offered packages to voluntarily leave the company but manufacturing workers are not affected. In its quarterly results, Nissan said that some fixed cost reductions had already been made with savings of more than 30bn yen (£15m) achieved in the first quarter.
Nissan president and CEO Ivan Espinosa said: “These results serve as a reminder of the urgency behind our Re:Nissan recovery plan. Over the past quarter, we’ve taken decisive first steps – cutting costs, redefining our product and market strategy, and strengthening key partnerships. We must now go further and faster to achieve profitability.”
Elsewhere, the firm said a strategy to update its range of models to meet markets was progressing with the N7 in China and Magnite in Mexico delivering strong sales.
