Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Nissan's Fiscal Year 2024 Full Year Earnings Session. This press conference is being held in hybrid format, so we have media both in the room and online. Before I begin, let me go through a few hygiene announcements, request you all to put your cell phones on mute. Emergency exits are marked, and we have people who will guide you through the procedures in case of emergency. Let me start by introducing the speakers for today: Mr. Ivan Espinosa, President and Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Jeremie Papin, Chief Financial Officer. I will now hand over to Ivan for his remarks.
Thanks, Lavanya. Good evening, everyone, and thank you very much for joining us as we announce our results for FY 2024 and our plan to recover and position Nissan for long-term success in a competitive landscape. Thank you for allowing us time to do a deeper dive into the situation and develop a prudent plan. Since taking office, and with the support of a strengthened executive committee, we have conducted a comprehensive assessment of the situation, including asset review, and made a careful decision to impair production assets in key markets. Today, I will share our new recovery plan, Re-Nissan, in light of the fiscal year results. Before that, Jérémie will cover the FY 2024 results and FY 2025 outlook. Over to you, Jérémie.
Thank you. Thank you, Ivan. Good evening, everyone. Fiscal Year 2024 has been a challenging year for us, and we anticipate that these challenges will continue into Fiscal 2025 as we focus on rebuilding Nissan. We are taking strategic actions to address performance gaps while navigating market uncertainties. I will take you through our financial results for the 12-month period to March 31, 2025. Nissan's revenue was JPY 12.63 trillion for the period, down 0.4% year-over-year. Although revenue remained flat, operating profit decreased to nearly JPY 70 billion, impacted by lower volume, a weaker mix, pricing pressure, and increased costs. As referenced in April, these financial results include impairment charges of over JPY 500 billion and restructuring costs of close to JPY 60 billion. Combine these items along with the release of deferred tax assets resulted in a net loss of JPY 671 billion.
Later in this presentation, we will address the ongoing recovery of Nissan and additional detail on the necessity of these non-cash impairments and restructuring costs. First, I will go through our performance for Fiscal Year 2024. Total global retail sales decreased by 2.8% year-over-year, with China volumes nearly 100,000 units lower than the previous year. Excluding China, unit sales were flat, driven by new model launches. North American sales rose 3%, which offsets declines in other regions. Europe was down by 3%, Japan by 5%, and other markets by 1%. In China, retail sales decreased by 12% as we continued to adjust supply-to-demand and faced intense competition from domestic brands. For the fourth quarter ending end of March, global retail sales decreased by 5%, with China down by 20%.
Excluding China, retail sales in the fourth quarter were down by 0.6%, with nearly 10% decline in Japan, nearly 4% in Europe, and 3% in other markets. The decline in consolidated retail sales was offset by a 5.5% increase in quarterly unit sales in North America. This slide highlights our key financial performance indicator on an equity basis for the full year. Net revenue on a consolidated basis was flat at JPY 12.6 trillion. Last month, the financial outlook was revised, forecasting an operating profit of JPY 85 billion. However, following the final audit process, the operating profit for the fiscal year totaled JPY 70 billion, resulting in an operating margin of 0.6%. Including the impairments of over JPY 500 billion, restructuring costs of JPY 60 billion, and higher taxes, we are reporting a net loss of JPY 671 billion for the fiscal year.
Despite the challenges, we continue to invest in new products, services, and technologies which are critical for our future. This led to higher CapEx of JPY 577 billion and maintaining R&D spend above JPY 600 billion. Net revenue for the automotive business was JPY 11.37 trillion, and operating loss was JPY 216 billion. Due to the negative operating profit in autos and increased CapEx, free cash flow for the automotive business was a negative JPY 243 billion. Automotive net cash for the period was JPY 1.5 trillion, flat year-over-year. Next, I would like to explain the variance factors for operating profit from the prior year to this fiscal. Against the JPY 569 billion operating profit in Fiscal 2023, we saw a positive impact from foreign exchange of JPY 36 billion. The US dollar remained strong; however, this was offset by declines in other currencies. Raw material costs had a positive impact of JPY 13.6 billion.
The largest negative contribution resulted from the decline in sales performance, which was down by almost JPY 300 billion. This was due to weaker unit sales volume, higher variable marketing expenses, and some lower after-sales revenue. Monozokuri costs had a negative impact of JPY 7.9 billion, as increased costs for regulatory and product enrichment items, along with other expenses, offset improvements in manufacturing costs, logistics, and in R&D. Inflation had a negative impact of JPY 106 billion, with inflationary pressures affecting cost-cutting efforts and supplier costs. Other costs, including normalizing credit losses from sales finance and weaker remarketing results, had a negative impact of JPY 135 billion. As a result, our operating profit decreased to JPY 69.8 billion. For the fourth quarter, operating profit decreased to JPY 5.8 billion. This was primarily due to a weaker contribution from sales, along with higher raw material costs.
Having reviewed last year, let us look ahead to Fiscal Year 2025. Overall unit sales for the upcoming fiscal year are expected to decrease by 2.9% to 3.25 million units. This expected decline, which excludes potential impacts from higher tariffs, is mainly from an 18% sales decline we forecasted for China, while we expect retail sales, excluding China, to slightly grow by 1%. Sales in Japan, North America, and Europe are expected to be roughly flat year-on-year. However, sales in other markets are forecasted to increase by 6.6% due to expected growth, for example, in Brazil and India. Global production volume is projected at 3 million units, adjusted to a reduced volume outlook to manage inventories. This slide illustrates the operating profit variance analysis for the Fiscal Year 2025 outlook. Excluding the potential tariff impact, forex headwinds are projected at JPY 120 billion, with a small positive contribution from raw material.
Sales performance is anticipated to improve by JPY 60 billion through better incentive management supported by an improved cash flow management and new model launches in the second half of the year. Better manufacturing cost management, improved logistics, and regional total delivered costs are anticipated to positively contribute to JPY 160 billion from monozokuri, with cost savings building up as our new plan ramps up. However, these gains will be offset by inflationary costs of JPY 145 billion and other expenses of JPY 45 billion, including higher CO2 emission-related costs. Operating profit is expected to be break-even for Fiscal Year 2025, excluding the potential impact from tariffs. I will now discuss our assessment of the current situation regarding U.S. tariffs. Our exports from Mexico and Japan account for roughly less than 45% of our total U.S. sales. We estimate that our total negative gross impact before any mitigation is JPY 450 billion.
However, we aim to mitigate this impact through various measures. On the upper right-hand side of this slide, you can see a list of the measures we are implementing. In Q1, these actions could enable us to mitigate approximately 30% of the expected tariff impact. For Fiscal Year 2025, we expect net revenue to decrease to JPY 12.5 trillion. The guidance for FY 2025 operating profit, net income, and auto free cash flow is still to be determined. This uncertainty comes from the potential impact of tariffs and additional restructuring costs, which are currently being assessed. However, for the first quarter, considering the impact of tariffs, we are forecasting net revenue of JPY 2.75 trillion and an operating loss of JPY 200 billion. Auto free cash flow for the quarter is expected to be a negative JPY 550 billion. Following typical seasonal patterns, the first quarter is expected to be our most challenging period.
As the year progresses, we expect to see steady improvement driven by the refreshed product portfolio and effective cost reduction strategies. Nissan has a total available liquidity of JPY 3.4 trillion. This includes JPY 2.2 trillion of cash and cash equivalents and around JPY 1.3 trillion of auto cash loans outstanding to sales finance companies. Additionally, we have JPY 2.1 trillion in unused committed credit lines that are available if needed, with approximately JPY 600 billion allocated to the automotive business. At the end of Fiscal Year 2024, our automotive debt stood at nearly JPY 2 trillion, of which about JPY 700 billion matures in Fiscal Year 2025. We plan to refinance between JPY 400-JPY 600 billion of this debt maturing. Therefore, we expect to end the Fiscal Year 2025 and enter Fiscal Year 2026 with total debt ranging between JPY 1.6-JPY 1.8 trillion.
To sum up, Fiscal Year 2025 will be a year of transition for us, a year of decisions. We have enough liquidity to cover our funding needs, which will support us as we restructure our business. While FY 2025 is a year of challenges and uncertainties, the actions we are implementing as part of our new recovery plan are designed to yield positive results in FY 2026. Thank you for your continued support and confidence in our journey ahead. I will now hand it back to Ivan.
Thank you, Jérémie. As you can see, our full-year financial results are a wake-up call. The reality is very clear. Our variable costs are rising. Our fixed costs are higher than our current revenue can support. As Jérémie said, FY 2025 is a year of transition. We are taking a prudent approach and keeping our revenue assumptions flat.
The reality is clear. We have a very high-cost structure. To complicate matters further, the global market environment is volatile and unpredictable, making planning and investment increasingly challenging. Hence, Nissan must prioritize self-improvement with greater urgency and speed, aiming for profitability with less reliance on volume. This is what we're setting out to do with our new recovery plan, Re-Nissan. Our plan outlines three key drivers that will help us achieve positive operating profit and positive free cash flow by Fiscal Year 2026. These are reducing costs to aim for break-even, redefine product and market strategy with a sharper focus, and reinforcing partnerships to complement our strategies. Let me talk through you in detail. Reduce costs. This is the area where we need to go further and faster.
With the help of cross-functional teams, we have reassessed and scrutinized all the assumptions on which forecasts were based in the past. Given our structural challenges and market conditions, we need to deliver more cost reductions on a significantly larger scale. Our new target is total savings of $500 billion, which includes $250 billion from variable costs and another $250 billion from fixed costs. We have increased our target variable costs, and we plan to further reduce these costs in FY 2027 to achieve a solid and sustainable profitability. Let me now clarify why there are two sets of numbers on the screen. We are presenting the targets alongside the most recently announced figures to illustrate the extent of the reductions being implemented. The earlier targets were based on assumptions from the ARC business plan.
Now, our goal is to establish realistic and measurable targets based on the actual results from FY 2024. We will track our progress on these targets and report in a timely manner. To achieve the magnitude of variable cost reduction, we need a dedicated program and task force. We have already established a new variable cost transformation program to realize maximum engineering and cost efficiencies. Another big area is our supply chain. We are rethinking our supply base to ensure more volume for fewer suppliers and increase efficiencies while we do benchmarking. We will also be challenging our internal standards for more practical outcomes. With this, the aim for a 10% reduction is visible. Over three years, we will reach 10% with the potential for further significant savings in FY 2027. The task at hand is very big and very challenging.
We need a strong governance model to ensure we identify, execute, and achieve all reductions quickly. Hence, we created a sprint team under our Chief TDC Officer who will directly report to the executive committee. We allocated 300 cross-functional and cross-regional experts to divert their efforts and expertise to achieve this goal. We have already organized 66 commodity groups and identified at least 19 different activities. The team has generated already a total of 2,300 ideas, with more than 800 ready for implementation, amounting to JPY 75 billion in FY 2026. Many more ideas will follow, and they will come faster. Additionally, by pausing some advanced and post-FY 2026 projects, we will be able to reassign 3,000 employees to work on TDC reduction. This will not delay our production start for new vehicles, thanks to our shortened development process.
The resources we are allocating demonstrate the importance we place on this area and our commitment to succeeding in this effort. While we work diligently on variable cost reduction, we will seek further efficiencies to reduce our fixed costs. There are several initiatives, but let me highlight some key measures that demonstrate the scale of the actions. First is to restructure manufacturing. This includes consolidating our vehicle and powertrain plants globally, including Japan. This will require reducing the number of our manufacturing plants from 17 to 10 and increasing our utilization rate to 100% in FY 2027. We will reduce our production capacity to 2.5 million by FY 2027, with the option to increase it by 500,000 if demand arises. Additionally, we will utilize our partner plants to support production as needed.
We have already taken quick and decisive actions, such as consolidating pickup production from Argentina to Mexico, reorganizing operations in India with our partner Renault, and stopping investment in an LFP battery plant in Japan. As part of Re-Nissan, we need to implement further workforce optimization, primarily driven by our plant consolidation efforts. We are aiming for a revised global target of 20,000 people by FY 2027, with roughly 65% coming from manufacturing, 18% from S and G&A functions, and 17% from R&D and mostly contractual staff. While this decision is essential for enhancing operational efficiency and ensuring long-term sustainability, we will ensure necessary support to affected employees during the transition. In addition to these reductions, we will focus on lowering labor costs and expenses, expanding shared services, and achieving greater marketing efficiencies.
In the area of development, we will focus on improving efficiency in three key areas: cost of engineering, complexity, and speed. We aim for a 20% reduction in workforce average cost per hour by rationalizing our global R&D facilities and allocating work to the most competitive location within the Nissan global R&D footprint. In addition, we are targeting complexity reduction in two major areas. The first is parts complexity, which we aim to reduce by 70%. The second area is platform reduction. While this takes time, it will help reduce engineering workload in the short term. We plan to cut the number of global vehicle platforms by nearly half, from 13 to 7 by FY 2035. Regarding speed, we have outlined efforts to shorten development lead times through the family development concept.
We have invested significant energy into this initiative, and today we are excited to announce, for the first time, three vehicles that will emerge from this process: the all-new Nissan Skyline, an all-new global C-segment SUV, and an all-new Infiniti Compact SUV. Now, here's the timeline for implementation extending through FY 2027. This timeline reflects our commitment to executing these tasks and underscores our dedication to transparency in our processes. We believe in open communication with our stakeholders, and this timeline will serve as a tracker to demonstrate our progress and the impact of our initiatives. We fully expect to be held accountable for our announcements. Now, I would like to explain our second area of focus, our redefined strategy for markets, products, and partnerships. As previously stated, we understand that a sustainable recovery cannot rely solely on cost reductions. It must also be supported by strong product offerings.
To this end, we will concentrate on developing vehicles in core market segments while collaborating with partners to create vehicles tailored for other markets and needs. Here, you can see the segments in which Nissan will develop vehicles and how we will leverage our partners to support other segments and markets. For instance, we will collaborate with Renault in Europe, Mitsubishi Motors in the US, and Dongfeng Nissan in China, not only for the Chinese market, but also for exports. We will leverage models from one of these approaches to cover other markets and explore further business collaboration in the US to adapt to the evolving market environment. We will prioritize markets and products to ensure we have the right models for the right markets at the right price points, aligning supply with demand. This involves establishing distinct strategic positions for each region.
In the US, our focus will be on crossovers and SUVs, with plans to offer more hybrids and reinvigorate Infiniti's market presence. In Japan, we aim to renew Nissan's distinct brand appeal while driving up our average price by leveraging larger-sized models and signature technologies. In China, we will more effectively leverage our joint venture to lower costs and optimize the production of new energy vehicles. Additionally, we will begin exporting our NEV models to markets outside China, ensuring speed, cost competitiveness, and innovative technologies. In the high-growth Indian market, we will renew our product lineup and maximize synergies within the alliance. We have already taken a step in this direction by transferring control of our plant in India to Renault, allowing our alliance partner to assemble next-generation models for Nissan and enabling us to capture export markets.
In Europe, we will strengthen our presence by assembling more electrified models in Sunderland, utilizing also our alliance relationship with Renault to take advantage of their assembly lines and electric vehicle architectures. Finally, in Mexico and the Middle East, we will capitalize on our strong brand position to sustain the profitable business we have established in those regions. In very simple terms, all of our product efforts must be aimed at making the heart of Nissan beat stronger. We will prioritize our portfolio investment around three key objectives. First, we must retain our core business and current customers by providing vehicles that they value. Second, we will focus on geographical and segment growth to attract new customers in targeted markets. Third, we will enhance our marketing and sales efforts for our iconic models, which represent the heartbeat of Nissan, to reignite customer passion for our brand.
We take pride in our heartbeat models, which reflect the true DNA of Nissan. They are defined not just by sales volume, but by their iconic design, engineering ambition, and most importantly, by how they fully represent Nissan's values. Additionally, partnerships will enable us to cover various segments and regions with optimized investments, allowing us to refocus our resources on core project priorities. Our focus on core models will be supported by complementary vehicle development in collaboration with our partners. With Renault, we will enhance our collaboration in Europe, India, and Latin America. We are also working with Mitsubishi Motors and Honda to explore advancements in vehicle intelligence and electrification. Specifically, with Mitsubishi Motors, we are collaborating on pickups and EV battery sharing. We will actively seek business collaboration in the US to adapt to the evolving market conditions.
In addition to our partnership projects, we are continuing our strategic review process, and we will provide updates at the appropriate time. We are not only committed to the actions we take, but also to the results they yield. To drive this change, we are establishing a special steering committee to oversee initiatives in all areas. This committee will bring together our best and brightest from both regional and global teams, ensuring comprehensive coverage, visibility, and accountability. I will chair this committee with the support of the Executive Committee of Nissan. I extend my gratitude to our senior leaders and the wider executive team for the dedication to the task ahead, as well as to our employees for their invaluable support in achieving our goals. In conclusion, let me restate that our fiscal 2024 results have exposed the urgent need for Nissan to recover.
To safeguard our future, we must go further and faster. We have a mountain to climb from the losses we are announcing today. As our path forward, the Re-Nissan Recovery Plan is an action-based, grounded in reality, and driven plan by determined actions. It will not be easy to deliver. It will require dedication, discipline, and hard work in every part of the organization. I am confident that we have what we need to rebuild our company. We will need the understanding and support from our valued partners and stakeholders, as well as collaboration from future partners. With a shared mission, Nissan people have the skills and ability to return Nissan to its rightful position. As I've stated before, I truly believe there is no competition that cannot be won by working together as one team. Starting today, we build the future for Nissan. Thank you.
Thank you, Ivan.
We will now open up for the questions. For people in the room, please raise your hand, and our representative will give the mic to you. Those online, please raise your hand on Zoom. After we call you, please do introduce your name and publication, and keep one question per person to allow for more questions. Let me start with the first question in the room. Okay, we start right at the beginning. The person in the center, please. Yeah.
Hello. Toyo Keizai, Hattai is speaking. One question only, right? Okay, thank you very much. Re-Nissan is what I would like to ask about. Why are you going to reduce 20,000 people and decide to close seven plants? Why now did you decide it? Because 20% reduction capacity and 7% headcount reduction was not enough. That was market's perception.
To start with, the old management, do you think that it was not enough that old management did not make an enough decision, but because the duration and external environment you are making these new decisions? In the 1990s, during Nissan Revival Plan, this is the same order of magnitude of revival that you are implementing. Are you sure that this is enough? How determined are you?
Yeah, thank you for your question. First of all, what we did as a new management team is to relook at everything that has been prepared before. We look at it very coldly. We look at it with challenging eyes, and we define the need to do more. As you saw earlier by the presentation from Jérémie, our fixed cost structure is something that we cannot absorb with the current revenue.
Unfortunately, given the volatility in the market, it is hard for us to absorb this cost structure. We had to take more actions and accelerate the actions. Yeah. This is what is driving the need for us to do more. Are we confident that this is enough? The answer is yes. This will be enough to drive the results that we need, but we need to move fast, and we have to accelerate. Proof of this are some of the recent discussions that we have or decisions that we have made, like what we just announced a few days ago on the LFP battery investment that unfortunately we had to give up. Another example is a very quick announcement that we made on the deal with our partner Renault for the India manufacturing footprint. This is the speed and determination that this new management team has.
We will move with speed, determination, and discipline to secure the results that we are committing to today. Thank you for your question.
Thank you. Next question, please. Over to the center. Maybe the person on the second row. Middle row second. Middle row second. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.
Yes, Yomiuri Shimbun. My name is Muko Yama. Seven plants will be closed. Could you elaborate on this? Especially utilization rate in Japan is low, and that's what people indicated. The seven plants, does this include the Oppama, Tochigi, and Shonan plant where the utilization rate is poor? Is this included? Because so far, you were hesitant to do a restructuring within Japan. But this time, are you going to address Japanese operational reform, and why are you doing this now?
Yeah, thank you for the question.
Unfortunately, at the moment, we cannot disclose details of which locations we are considering for this right sizing. As you rightly said, this is including Japan. It's a global assessment including Japan, and it includes vehicle, but we are also actively now looking at powertrain plants. In the end, we will come up with a combination of vehicle assembly plant resizing, but also powertrain resizing will come after. To give you some examples of what we have already done, we have already announced Argentina consolidation to Mexico in the pickup manufacturing. We have also announced before the Thai consolidation line plan one to plan two, and what I just mentioned about the India operation with Renault. These are the things that we have already done, and there's more to come, and we will inform you in due course.
Yeah, thank you for the question.
Thank you. Let's go to the gentleman behind in the middle row. Yes.
畑中, Nippon Broadcasting Company. Thank you very much for this opportunity. My question is with regards to the Japanese market. According to recent commercials, rather than EV and autonomous drive, Waku Waku is being focused, which is understandable. You said that in the Japanese market, you're going to think about the improvement of average price. Does that mean that average price will go up? Japanese people, many of them, cannot afford cars beyond JPY 5 million. Who are the target customers you want to give the Waku Waku feeling?
Thank you. Thank you for the question. The strategy to increase the average lineup price in Japan is not via pricing.
What we're looking to do is to capitalize on other existing vehicles that we have in the lineup, larger cars that we know our Japanese customers are fond of, to bring them to the Japan market and expand our coverage. With this and also the addition of more signature technologies in the vehicles that we have, we expect to increase the average price of our range. This is the approach that we are taking. It is not a pure pricing up, but rather leveraging on the product offering and the technology offering in the market.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the question.
My team tells me we have allocated enough time, so yeah, you can expand to two questions. Let m e move to the left side, please. Yeah, the gentleman over there.
Excuse me, I am from Nikkei Shimbun. My name is Ochiai. Thank you.
You are going to reduce the number of Japanese plants. You need to collaborate with many stakeholders to make this happen. Inside the company, local municipalities, where are you with the status of discussion? I'm sure you are not ready to disclose. Have you already specified the plan that you are working on, and that is why you calculated into seven? Have you specified a specific plan and employment of the... If you close the plan, how are you going to approach the employment who are affected by disclosure?
Y eah, thank you for the question. Yeah, of course, we have a plan, and we have identified candidate plans for right sizing. At the moment, I cannot share more because there's still the engagement with stakeholders that have to take place, but we have a clear plan to reach these objectives. Yeah, and your second question was about the approach.
Of course, this is very serious, and we do recognize that this is a very painful decision to take. In Nissan, as you know, we have a very strong and firm view about our people. So we will take good care of them. We will manage the communication accordingly, and of course, support any of the employees in the transition as we move forward. Yeah, thank you again for the question .
We'll take one question from online. I think Katrina from Reuters is there. Katrina, go ahead. Hello, Katrina. Can you hear us? Yeah, maybe we'll go back to her. Okay, we come to the front row. Yes.
Hi, thanks. Hi, Hans Greimel from Automotive News. Thank you for your time today.
When we look at the plan out to fiscal year 2027, and you have the capacity kind of boiled down to 2.5 million, what do you think will be the global sales at that point? Do you imagine that global sales will shrink down to about that same level? What do you imagine sales will be then? What do you think the operating profit margin would be around that time, given that you have shrunk down the capacity and improved the capacity utilization?
Okay, thank you. Thank you for the question, Hans. As for sales, as I mentioned in the presentation, we are taking a very prudent approach, expecting our revenue to remain flat. We are basically attacking the fixed and the variable costs. In terms of capacity, as I explained, you can see we are aiming to 2.5 million, but this is under the Harbor method, which considers two shifts.
This means we have upper flexibility of around 500,000. And then also we have within our sales plans, OEM-in programs with some partners that account roughly for 400,000 cars. This is how we are looking at the capacity-to-sales ratio, Hans. As for the OP, as mentioned in 2026, our goal is to achieve positive auto OP and positive free cash flow. This means that for FY2027, of course, we will be or should be beyond that. We are creating the platform to have a more profitable business in FY2027 and beyond. Thank you.
Jérémie, would you like to add anything? Okay, good. We move on to the question online now, if you are ready. Katrina, can you hear us?
Thank you. Thank you, I can. Can I ask what proportion of your China-made vehicles do you intend to export, and to which markets are you planning to export them?
In the short term, we want to accelerate. I do not have a number to give you, but in the long term, we want to have a balanced volume between domestic and exports. Yeah, this reference that I give you is in the long term. We want to quickly accelerate the exports of the vehicles that we are preparing there. So far, the two first cars that we have unveiled recently in the Shanghai Auto Show, which are the Nissan N7 and our Frontier Pro PHEV, have been welcomed greatly with great expectation and great support, not only in China but also overseas. These are two of the first models that we will accelerate to export, Katrina. Thank you. Thank you for the question
Thank you.
The next question from the middle row. Person in the white glasses, please. White glasses.
Freelance. Free Lance Shinya Yamamoto is speaking. Thank you for naming me. To revive Nissan, you talk about the scenarios, but as a monozokuri company, you need to build good products. Good products are the keys. You are reforming the R&D. It's about reducing costs or increasing the speed of engineering. I'm sure you're taking all the actions. My question is as follows. For CEO, what do you mean by good cars, which will be the key success factor lately on the circuit in the car enthusiasts? I'm sure you interacted with the car enthusiasts. How do you d efine good car?
This is a very deep question, and I could probably talk with you for hours on this subject, but for me, the important thing, as mentioned in the presentation, is to bring Nissan's heartbeat back.
Yeah, and we are going to do that by leveraging on the core DNA of Nissan, which is exciting cars that make people smile. Yeah, Nissan is a brand that has a lot of fans and a lot of lovers. Yeah, and this is exactly what we have to capitalize on. We need to make more of these cars in order to dress the brand globally. Our engineers, our designers, our product planners are very, very capable in doing so, and this is what we will leverage on because this is what dresses the brand, and this is what drives customers to our stores. We can have volume and business-oriented cars, right? We will focus a lot of energy on creating these exciting cars in order to redress and reshape the Nissan brand. Yeah, thank you again for your question. Thank you.
Let's take the question from the gentleman in the first row. Yeah.
TV Tokyo, my name is Abe. This is a question for CEO. Partnership will be reinforced. This is a policy that you defined earlier. You said that Honda's collaboration. How are you going to collaborate with Honda going forward? Earlier, Mibe San said that collaboration with Nissan, it's about widening that you are considering to widen the option of collaboration with Nissan. That's what Mibe San said earlier. Are you going to deepen the collaboration with Honda or with regards to business integration? What do you think about the business integration with Honda and Taiwan, Hong Hai? The possibility of collaborating with Hong Hai in Taiwan, what's your thinking about this? These are my questions. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you for the question.
As for partnership with Honda, as explained in the presentation, we continue to work with them. You know, we never stop working with them, particularly in the area of vehicle intelligence and electrification. This is an area that we will keep exploring, but not only. As mentioned also in the presentation, we are actively looking for opportunities in the U.S. market, particularly because of the current market situation. Of course, Honda is one of the candidates that we are discussing in order to see if we can find a way forward and have a project together. Now, as for your question on the broader collaboration and the strategic review, as mentioned, the strategic review process is ongoing. We are discussing actively and considering many partners, including, of course, Honda, but not only.
Yeah, this is a very open review that we are doing, and we are evaluating potential partners that will bring additional corporate value to Nissan. The areas of priority for us are, of course, synergies in the biggest markets in which we are present. You can easily imagine this includes Japan, the U.S., but also advanced technology development, as well as finding ways of having a lighter balance sheet. These are like the principles we're utilizing in this strategic review. As we said, we are open to collaborating with multiple partners as long as corporate value is coming. Yeah, thank you for the question.
Thank you. Next question. Could we go to the gentleman there?
Yeah. Yamaguchi of Kyodo News. Thank you for this opportunity. My question is with regards to Re-Nissan. 20,000 people will be reduced from 17 to 10 plants.
Amongst the restructuring plans, the number of headcount reduction has been increased from 9,000, and your original plan was three plants, but the number of plants to be closed has been increased. Under this new recovery plan, in order for Nissan to truly turn around, do you think this is sufficient and enough, or do you think further steps will be necessary, like headcount reduction or closure of domestic plants beyond re-Nissan? Will you be thinking such possibilities beyond re-Nissan? Thank you.
Thank you. As mentioned, we are confident in the plan that we are laying down today. This 20,000 workforce reduction is a combination of manufacturing, as explained during the presentation. It is a combination of manufacturing direct and indirect, including also SNGNA resource and R&D, mostly contractual workers. This is the composition of the 20,000. It is not purely coming from the manufacturing side.
As I said, for the moment, the plan we are confident on, and we will focus on executing the plan. Rather than considering more and more and more scenarios, what Nissan needs to do now is to focus on doing. This is what we will do. Thank you.
Thank you. We go to the far end.
Yes. Harry Dempsey from the Financial Times. Thank you, Ivan. The question is just around the potential factory closures. Within the factories that you are looking at, are any of the factories sort of sacred cows that you would not touch because of their strategic importance? For example, perhaps the factories in the U.S., or what about Sunderland? Thank you.
Yeah, thank you for the question. The approach that we have, of course, has a strategic view of the footprint that we have.
Also considering to keep certain flexibility because, as we rightly know, the world is very unstable these days, and you need to keep some flexibility to react. The other angle that we are taking, of course, is competitiveness. Using these variables is the way we are approaching and we approached the selection of candidates for right-sizing. Yeah. Thank you again for the question.
Thank you. Next question. To the gentleman here, the white shirt. Yeah.
Marjo Market. Marjo Market, my name is Yoshida. I'm a reporter. Partnership strategy. You are trying to reinforce the partnership strategy. Do you have any concrete progress that you can disclose to us in the presentation? Restructuring and the cost reduction. For each project, you focused on partnership in each specific area. That's the top priority. How about the capital tie-up? Partnership and tightening capital tie-up. Is this possible?
Are you thinking about this kind of partnership?
Yeah, thank you. As mentioned earlier, we have no detail to share today on the strategic review, but this does not mean that we are not working on it. We are actively looking at it. As I said earlier, we are looking at any potential actions or measures that can add value to our company. We are taking a very open view of the world, of the candidates that we have. Of course, we will keep actively developing this plan and come to you with updates when we are ready. Y eah, thank yo u. Thank you for the question.
Thank you. Next question. Could you come to the gentleman in the front, please? Yeah
. 朝日新聞松岡。 Speaking. Thank you. I have two questions. The first one, 20,000 reduction. Does this include the headcount in Japan or not?
Just like the plants, could you re-evaluate on this? Does it include the Japanese population? And this loss is the third largest in the history of Nissan. Twenty-five years ago, when Mr. Ghosn arrived, the company used to have a similar challenge. You are repeating the same mistake. What is the cause here? What's the difference with the Nissan revival plan? These are my questions.
Thank you for the question. As I said earlier, unfortunately, this is a measure that is global, and it includes Japan. The answer to your question is yes. Unfortunately, we have to look into Japan as well. The reason is not something recent. I think you need to take a step back and understand what was happening around 2015 or 2016. Management back then was expecting our company to be a size of around 8 million cars. Yeah.
As such, there were heavy investments done both in terms of manufacturing capacity as well as in human resource. What is happening today is we are just facing the reality of being much smaller than that. We have to take the reset action if we want Nissan to survive in the future. This is the reason and what is driving these unfortunate actions that we have to take today, which again, are unfortunate but are necessary. We would not be doing this if it was not necessary for the survival of Nissan. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question in the middle, please.
Mida of West Japan Newspaper. Regarding supplier reduction. In your presentation, Ivan, from fewer suppliers, more components will be supplied, you said. In the auto sector, there is a wide range of supplier ships, so we have some concerns regarding impact to supplier ship.
How large will the reduction of suppliers be? What's the plan?
\Yeah, thank you. We don't have the specifics to share today on how far we will go with supplier panel optimization, but there's a few actions that I can tell. One, as I said, we intend to reduce the supplier panel, focusing on suppliers that have more competitiveness and giving them more business because this will be a symbiotic relationship that can build positive business for the supplier and also sustainable business for Nissan. The other area that we are starting to put a lot more focus on is looking at our supplier base in China and see what we can learn from their methodologies and why not inviting them into our ecosystem of manufacturing outside of China.
These are some examples that can help us drive performance, that can help us learn new methodologies, and also use these learnings to share with other suppliers that can improve their performance as well. We're also going to have a much closer relationship with suppliers. As mentioned during the presentation, we are challenging a lot of our own internal standards because there are cases in which the suppliers have great ideas for cost reductions, but we are not adopting them because of our own standards and our own definition. This is now under Akashi San's leadership, our new CTO. This is being looked at, and he's very actively chasing this. This is how we are approaching the supplier question that you just raised. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for that
Thank you. We have a hand raiser online. Shiraki San from Reuters. Please go ahead.
Shiraki-san, can you hear us?
Do you hear me? I am Shiraki from Reuters. Thank you for the opportunity. I have two questions. The first question, do you hear me, by the way?
Yes, we can. Please.
In Japan, the production footprint in Japan is also on. What's your thinking about the Japanese production footprint? In the past, Nissan in Japan wanted to maintain 1 million units of production at one time, but gradually the production volume fell. Today, it's around what? 500,000 units or so, or 700,000 units or so, maybe, if I understand correctly. Japanese plants used to be a mother plant, and ex-EVP Sakamoto-san called it a mother plant. Because of the tariff impact from 2017, you are going to reduce it into 2010.
Japanese production footprint, what will be the positioning of the production entities in Japan in terms of size and the models that you need to build? Do you have any principles of policy? What kind of production system in Japan will be an ideal? This is my first question. Thank you.
Thank you. As stressed earlier, we are not in a position to share details today, but you can imagine Japan will remain one of our core manufacturing footprints. Of course, being a Japanese company is no surprise or should be no surprise. As mentioned before, what we're doing is taking first a strategic view, ensuring that we keep proper flexibility to make front to geopolitical changes that are happening as we speak in the world, but at the same time, drive competitiveness improvement and extract the best of our manufacturing footprint that we have today.
This is the approach that we will be taking. Yeah, thank you for your question.
Thanks, Ivan. We have time for a couple more questions. Who'd like to go ne xt? Come to the, please.
Nikkan Jidōsha. Nikkei Jidōsha, my name is Nakamura. Thank you for the opportunity. There are two questions about the financials. Tariffs impact is JPY 450 billion. That's the figure you gave me. What's the breakdown? What's the assumption of this JPY 450 billion? How are you going to design the mitigation measures and Re-Nissan program? In order to promote the Re-Nissan program, how will it impact the tariffs? The other one, full year guidance is to be determined. Going forward, when are we going to disclose the full year guidance? What's the schedule? Thank you.
Okay.
Let me start with the second part of your questions, and then I will ask Jérémie to complement, particularly the tariff. As for the plan, what you are seeing today in the measures, we are considering everything that is happening in the environment today. The targets that we are laying down for FY2026 are considering what we see today. Now, it does not mean that you cannot change because, as mentioned, it is very volatile, unfortunately. With what we see today, these are the commitments that we are making. This is to answer your question on the Re-Nissan consideration. As for the second and third question, I will ask Jérémie to elaborate on them. Yeah. Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks for the question. Regarding tariffs, as mentioned, and as you can see on the slide, our main exposure are exports from Mexico and exports from Japan.
Our total exposure, as mentioned, is JPY 450 billion. We are working on a number of mitigation measures. Some are fully in play today as regards where we are focusing our retail sales and how we are leveraging the operations that we have in our North American plants. Of course, we're closely working with our suppliers on further mitigation plans as the third area of tariff is imports of parts for our U.S. production. We are working on all fronts. In Q1, the expectation is that 30% of our exposure can be mitigated. As regards providing guidance, we thought with what we're sharing today, given the uncertainty that one can have over the overall trade situation and a lot of the work that we are now doing internally, we thought we were providing a good Q1 outlook.
I mean, not a good outlook, but a number of references that clearly can be used as regards our first quarter with a view that we know, because it is both the seasonal pattern as well as the forecast that we have based on the plans that we're rolling up, that it will be the worst quarter of the year. You can see the reference points that we have. Without the tariffs, this company in fiscal year 2025 is aiming to be break-even on the COP level. Of course, when there is more visibility, we will absolutely fully provide an updated guidance on a timely manner.
Thank you. We go for the next question. Could we come to the gentleman here?
今澤毎日ニュースペーパー. I have a question regarding alliance. Outside directors, eight directors. Next month, there will be a bill presented to reappoint them.
Executives have changed, but the board members are going to stay on? That's a question that's even spoken by your own employees. Mr. Espinosa, you have been recommended by the nomination committee, so you are not qualified to answer. At the AGM next month, that question will pop up for sure. Are you going to have another board member respond to that question? If you can respond to this question to the extent possible, can you share with us any comments you can say?
Thank you. Yeah, as you rightly said, I am unfortunately not in a position to answer on behalf of the board, but I believe there's been some statements made by our chairman of the board. I will kindly ask the comms team to share those with you. In any case, you can always ask the board members for their position on the matter.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. I did see a hand raise from the lady in the second row. Could you pass the mic to her? Was it?
Thank you for the presentation. I am from Nikkei Asia. My name is Yoneda. In 2024, full year results, one clarification. In April, you made a revision. At that time, net loss was between JPY 700 billion and JPY 750 billion. That was the assumption. But today, it's JPY 671 billion loss. What's the gap? What was the gap? What was the reason behind this gap between what you have updated back in April?
Thanks for the question. Back in April, we indeed had to provide a net income timely disclosure because our prior guidance had been towards minus JPY 80 billion.
As we were working towards a much larger impairment and restructuring charge, we had to disclose this net income. At the time, we were using, I would say, the best set of assumptions that we had. As we went through the process of finalizing all the numbers, you have what these are today. It is JPY 671 billion of net income loss, net loss for fiscal year 2024.
Okay. Please come here. Yes.
I know. I am a freelancer. My name is Isawo Inoue. I have two questions. This announcement, yes, it is similar to that of NRP. At the time of Nissan Revival Plan, Mr. Ghosn said that if he does not achieve the plan, he will take responsibility and take a consequence. Espinosa, are you including the cost reduction plan in 2026?
If you cannot generate a profit, are you going to take consequence? Are you determined to do so? This is my first question. Talking about the details, in the U.S., for a collaboration today, U.S. plant in Nissan, are you going to think of building Honda models in U.S. plant of Nissan? These are the two.
Yeah. Thank you for your question. As for the first question, as I mentioned during the presentation, we are going to be very transparent on the activities that we take. That is why we showed the timeline, because we want not only you, but also investors and other stakeholders to understand what are the actions that we are taking. We will regularly update the market with this timeline that we showed. Yeah. This is showing the transparency commitment that we have.
As I said, we are ready to be held accountable for the announcements that we are making. Yeah. These answer the first question. Yeah. As for collaboration, as I said during the presentation, we are looking actively for collaborations in the U.S. in order to deal with the environment that is happening there. We already engaged with MMC. We're starting to explore with Honda as well. We will keep you updated and share information in due course. Thank you for your question.
Thank you. Do we have any other questions? Over there, the lady in the back.
Thank you for the presentation. TV Asahi, my name is Kita Pura. I have two questions. Performance is worsening, and you will be reducing headcount by 20,000, which is essential, and closure of seven plants.
As the CEO, it was probably an extremely difficult decision to make. What is your personal feeling regarding the decision delivered? Second, tariffs. Various measures are being contemplated. That was what you said. With so much uncertainty regarding the future, and this issue could be prolonged, if this issue would be prolonged, do you have any plans to make any new plans? The United States and China and U.S. and U.K. have reached agreement with the Japanese government approaching its third round. What is your expectation towards the Japanese government?
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. First, that decision, of course, was not easy. It is a very, very painful and sad decision to take. As I mentioned, we would not be doing this if it was not really, really necessary to do it.
Unfortunately, as you have seen the results, the size of a company is just not sustainable. If we do not do something now, the problem will just get worse. It was a very difficult decision to take. We did it with the utmost responsibility. As I mentioned before, we will be very diligent on how we approach the people that will be going through this unfortunate situation. We will take care, as I mentioned before. As for tariffs, we hope that the solution can be coming soon. I guess same as other OEMs, we are expecting that some more reasonable conditions can come and also some stability can come. Part of the problem is, of course, the situation itself, but the other problem is the lack of certainty. We cannot plan.
It's very difficult to plan in current volatility, and we need to get some stability as well. These are the two expectations that I have. Hopefully, some better conditions, but also some stability and clarity. Yeah. Thank you.
Thanks, Ivan. This will be our last question. Once again, thank you for... Can we take one more question? I think I have one single hand raised. Oh, here we go.
Diamond. I am Yamamoto from Diamond. This is a question for CEO. Auto segment OP in 2026 should turn positive. With the impact of tariffs and the things are uncertain, even if you carry out the restructuring, I'm not sure whether auto segment will turn profitable in 2026. What's the timeline? In two years, you are going to generate a profit.
What kind of discussion took place at EC or board in coming to this timeline, including your feeling and thinking here?
I'm not sure I clearly understood your question, but I think you're asking if we can turn positive with the impact of tariff. Is that your question? Can you repeat that? I'm sorry. Maybe it was a translation. Can you repeat the question? Sorry for that.
In other words, in just two years, while the things are uncertain, in just two years, you are trying, in such a short period of time, you are trying to generate a positive profit. How did you define this goal? Because this is such a short period of time that you are going to generate positive. Are you desperate? Why? Why this timeline?
I n simple terms, as Jérémie mentioned before, if you remove tariffs, Nissan should be break-even this year, FY2025.
What is really dragging a lot of the results in 2025 is the tariff impact. Now, we are trying and running to find countermeasures for the tariffs. So far, we have found that we can offset around 30% of a yearly impact of tariffs. We will keep bringing actions and measures to minimize the impact. The goals that we laid down are simply the goals that we need to become a healthy company in the future. This is how we went through it. We set the targets in a realistic fashion by setting these goals and objectives, looking very diligently and into the detail of what can be done, and kicking off immediately activities. To give you again an example that probably we did not speak about a lot, we were just focusing on the fixed cost part of it.
But the variable cost, as I said, in just a few weeks of kicking off the program, we have over 2,300 ideas generated by a team of 300 people only. These 300 people have brought up to around JPY 75 billion of impact in variable cost already by FY2026. As we mentioned during the presentation, we're having a sprint of 3,000 people focused on variable cost only. You can imagine how serious we are about achieving the goals, the pressure that we are feeling on these goals as management, and why we are channeling a lot of our attention and resources into achieving these goals. We are determined, we are very serious, and we are going to deliver what we're saying today. Thank you for your question.
Thank you. We really need to close now. Once again, thank you for joining us.
If you have any further questions, please direct them to the Nissan Communications team. We will definitely get back to you. Have a good evening. Thank you.