We would like to now begin the presentation of the fiscal year 2020 third quarter financial results of Nissan Motor Corporation. We're most thankful that so many of you are connecting to attend this meeting. Taking into consideration the recent situation, we are using the internet system and live streaming for this results announcement. At the beginning, let me introduce to you the speakers this afternoon. President and CEO, Mr. Uchida Makoto. COO, Mr. Ashwani Gupta. CFO, Mr. Stephen Ma. Once again, they will be participating. Mr. Uchida, our president, will deliver remarks at the outset.
Thank you for joining us today. To begin with, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all those around the world who have been hard at work every day managing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nissan continues to place the highest priority on the safety of everyone we work with and serve, including our customers, dealers, suppliers, employees, and their families. We are doing our utmost to prevent infections while running our operations. The world continues to face deep uncertainties, including another wave of coronavirus. The conclusion of Brexit created clarity in the policy environment for global trade and commercial affairs. Meanwhile, the interest to address environmental issues is accelerating globally and are beginning to necessitate a generational shift in the automotive industry towards electrified vehicles.
This environment has only made us be further determined to achieve our Nissan NEXT Business Transformation plan, focused on quicker recovery of our performance and build the business foundation for the next era. During last quarter earnings announcement, I said that we are making steady progress on our plan, and I am very pleased to announce that Nissan is maintaining a strong momentum after three months. Our COO, Ashwani Gupta, will cover third quarter performance, and I will present the updated outlook for the full year. Ashwani-san, over to you.
Thank you, Uchida-san. Hello, everyone. While we are facing universal human crisis due to the coronavirus that have added to the existing macro challenges and industry issues, it is encouraging, however, to see some more predictable patterns emerge recently in the global business environment. In the third quarter, we have seen a recovery in the total automotive market, which has begun to exceed the same level from last year.
In our core markets, the United States has recovered to the same level as last year, while China has continued to exceed the prior year. Japan is higher than last year, this is because quarter three 2019 was low following the introduction of consumption tax. Japan for quarter three this year is flat with respect to quarter two. Europe in quarter three remains slightly behind the same level in 2019. We are constantly adapting to changing environment and demands.
Our global operations performed resiliently while ensuring the safety of our people. First, Nissan's global production increased steadily in quarter three by 12% with respect to quarter two. Second, our dealerships are nearly fully operational with 98% of our dealers open for regular business. With more customers using virtual platform, we saw 74,000 sales coming through the Nissan Digital Experience. Moving forward in the new normal period, elevating digital customer experience will remain an important focus area for Nissan. Turning to our new product launches, thanks to the challenging spirit of our employees, we continue to deliver new products starting from the Nissan Kicks e-POWER in Japan and Asia, to the all-new Rogue in United States, new Navara and Frontier in Asia and Mexico, all new Nissan Magnite in India, and all new Note e-POWER in Japan.
In addition to the new products, we have revealed under development products like the all-new crossover EV Ariya, the Z Proto, and INFINITI QX60 and QX55. We are confident these will contribute significantly to our brand power and sales growth in coming months. Taking a look at Nissan sales performance. During quarter three, our sales steadily improved from the previous quarter, growing by 2.4%. In China, our sales of Nissan brand grew by 4.1% with respect to quarter two, while our overall sales remained almost flat due to product and market mix. In Japan, our sales declined by 7% due to COVID-19 seasonality, and also because of the transition from previous Note to the all-new Note. In U.S., our sales grew by 9.9%, thanks to the customer and dealer confidence in our current models and new product launches.
In Europe, our sales decreased by 7.3%, reflecting the impact of COVID-19 restrictions during the winter month, which impacted consumer confidence in the market. In other regions, our sales grew by 15.2%, which also includes growth in India with the success of all-new Nissan Magnite. Let me now talk through core market business performance in more detail. In United States, we are continuously growing retail sales month-on-month and quarter-on-quarter, while strengthening our quality of sales, steadily shifting the business from volume to value. During quarter three, thanks to our value pricing, we continued to increase our net revenue per unit by 5%. Our key business touch points of inventory, fleet mix, and selling incentives reduction contributed to quality of sales. The all-new Rogue has had a great early success with our segment share reaching to 5.9%.
The value pricing increased by 22% with respect to the previous generation. These are the positive indicators that customers are choosing the all-new Rogue because of the value and not just the price. We will continue our commitment to bring attractive products and technologies to the United States market while maintaining value over volume. We are focused on stronger engagement with our business partners such as dealers and working with them to enhance our customer experience.
This has resulted in significant increase in customer satisfaction. Nissan became the top two Japanese brand in 2020 from top three in 2019 in sales satisfaction index. Among all the brands, Nissan increased its position from eighth to sixth place. We also saw that in continuation of previous quarters, our products and technologies are earning industry-wide recognitions from organizations like J.D. Power, NACTOY, and so on.
We revealed the all-new Pathfinder and all-new Frontier last week. We are confident that these will add to our profitable growth in the United States in the coming months. We are encouraged to see enhanced customer opinion on our brand improving to 63% just over the weekend following the unveil of these two cars. In China, Nissan brand sales have grown both quarter-by-quarter and year-on-year. We have increased our Nissan brand market share to 11.5% in CY 2020, which is the best record in the history. Importantly, we have kept our quality of sales with transaction price higher than the industry average. In CY 2020, Nissan Sylphy became the number one selling passenger car in the Chinese market. Moving forward, the launch of new models with latest technologies should provide us the right momentum in China.
Looking now at Japan, our quarterly sales increased year-over-year with a slight decline with respect to quarter two due to COVID-19 seasonality and preparation for the launch of the new Note. Nissan improved our brand power and received number one commercial favorability ranking two months in a row. Japan, being our home market, is continuing to show tremendous increase in the CASE leadership. Nissan is closely following these trends. Nissan has electrified a cumulative 602,000 cars. In terms of autonomous features, we have delivered a total of 418,000 ProPILOT-equipped units to date. This shows a strong recognition of Nissan's CASE technologies in Japan. Our all-new Note with 100% e-POWER has received overwhelming acceptance from Japanese customers with more than 20,000 orders and a 41% take rate of autonomous driving feature with ProPILOT and Navi-link.
With upcoming all-new models featuring Nissan's advanced technologies, we have created a strong position for Nissan in Japan, which will add to sales growth in coming months. A common theme across our core market is electrification, which is at the core of our strategy. Nissan saw encouraging growth in electric vehicles during quarter three, with LEAF sales growing 14% with respect to last year. We also have created significant excitement among customers for our upcoming crossover EV, Ariya, with over 100,000 expressions of interest globally to date. Ariya is a perfect fusion of Nissan's strong SUV heritage and proven battery EV customer experience. Simultaneously, Nissan has been actively involved creating a sustainable battery ecosystem. With our joint venture, 4R Energy in Japan, we have increased the sale of refurbished batteries by 25% in Japan.
This will enable Nissan to make continuous progress toward achieving life cycle carbon neutrality in our vehicles and operations. To summarize our progress of Nissan NEXT, we are significantly improving, number one, quality of sales by shifting from volume to value. Number two, rationalizing our cost base. Number three, accelerate growth with new models featuring advanced technologies. With regard to quality of sales, we have increased net revenue rate per unit by 1.7%. This also corresponds to reduction in rental mix, inventory, and incentives. At the same time, we are improving efficiency and effectiveness of our operational cost. We brought down our fixed cost by 12% through cost efficiencies in operations, marketing, sales, and general administration. As a result of all these efforts, we remain on track to achieve the goals of Nissan NEXT and prepare future growth.
Despite strong headwinds of total automotive market due to COVID-19, our focus on quality and sales and rationalizing our cost base led to positive operating profit of JPY 27.1 billion. A positive free cash flow with JPY 38.7 billion on an equity basis without China, and JPY 85.8 billion on a proportionate basis with China. As we can see, this is the second quarter in continuation after quarter two, that Nissan free cash flow is positive, which gives us confidence of having operational efficiency in sales, costs, and investments. Moving now to our financial results for nine months ending December 31. The right-hand side of the chart shows the financial results for the quarter. Operating profit for the third quarter was JPY 27.1 billion. Operating profit margin 1.2%, which increased from the prior year.
Though this is a single quarter result only, it demonstrates that we are gaining momentum and recovering towards the Nissan NEXT fiscal year 2021 operating profit margin target of 2% on a management pro forma basis. Given the decline in sales volume, consolidated net revenue for the nine-month period decreased to JPY 5.32 trillion. The operating loss was JPY 131.6 billion, and the net loss was JPY 367.7 billion. Let's now look at the transition from quarter three 2019 to quarter three 2020. In quarter three 2019, we had an operating profit of JPY 22.7 billion. Moving from there, we had significant headwinds due to volume drop, mainly due to COVID, which amounted to JPY 55.4 billion. While Forex amounted in JPY 37.8 billion.
Despite headwinds, we have been able to improve our operational performance, primarily with value pricing, lower incentives, as well as cost reduction of JPY 40 billion and JPY 57.6 billion respectively. This also partially offset raw material cost increases, which resulted in an operating profit of JPY 27.1 billion. We continue to maintain strong level of liquidity despite the challenging environment.
At the end of December 2020, cash equivalents were nearly JPY 2.0 trillion, and net cash total was JPY 525.5 billion for the auto segment. Furthermore, we still have unused committed credit facilities of approximately JPY 2.1 trillion as of December 2020. Brings me to the end of quarter three and first nine months results presentation. Based on these results, we believe Nissan NEXT has not only started demonstrating our business recovery but is also leading to important areas of growth for our future.
I will now turn over to Uchida-san to walk through the outlook for the remainder of FY 2020.
Thank you, Ashwani. Last November, we announced our sales outlook for this fiscal year at 4.165 million units. The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to spread around the world. In Japan, the number of infections has increased significantly, which led to the issuance of the current state of emergency. The auto industry is facing a shortage of semiconductors globally, and it is challenging to produce the necessary volume of vehicles to meet consumer demand. Taking these factors into consideration, we are revising downward our sales outlook for this fiscal year by 3.6% to 4.015 million units. We will continue to make efforts to minimize the impact of the semiconductor shortage. We will maintain our focus to improve the quality of sales and profitability and not chase after excessive volume. I will turn to our outlook for this fiscal year.
Based on the third quarter results and updated sales outlook, we are revising our full year financial outlook as follows. We are revising down our forecast for consolidated net sales revenue by 3% to JPY 7.7 trillion to reflect the reduction in sales volume. We now foresee a consolidated operating loss of JPY 205 billion, which is an improvement of JPY 135 billion from the previous projection, demonstrating the progress of Nissan NEXT in quality of sales, Monozukuri, and fixed cost optimization. Net loss is forecasted to be JPY 530 billion, an JPY 85 billion improvement from the previous estimate. The improvement in net loss is smaller than that of the operating loss, primarily due to the increase in tax. Last November, our previous guidance for consolidated operating loss was JPY 340 billion.
Compared to the previous outlook, the variance with the revised estimate of JPY 205 billion is as follows. The decrease in sales volume is forecasted to have a negative impact of JPY 57 billion. Sales performance, including the improvement in sales incentive per unit, the decrease in marketing and promotion expenses, as well as the improvement in sales mix, are expected to have a positive impact of JPY 60 billion and offset the negative impact from the decrease in sales volume.
The sales finance business is expected to have a positive impact of JPY 51 billion due to a release of loss provisions and lower interest costs. Monozukuri performance and others are expected to have a positive impact of JPY 81 billion as a result of an improvement in variable costs as well as progress made in fixed cost reductions.
Under the Nissan NEXT business transformation plan, we previously announced that we aim to reduce fixed costs by JPY 300 billion in fiscal years 2019 and 2020 versus the cost base in 2018. Our latest forecast estimates that the amount of reductions will be around JPY 330 billion, excluding any one-time reductions or delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This concludes the variance analysis on operating loss. As you can see from today's announcement, the company is on track with Nissan NEXT. As Ashwani mentioned, our new models are steadily driving a global sales recovery. In addition to the Nissan Pathfinder and Frontier premiered just last week, we will be introducing a series of attractive vehicles that demonstrate Nissan's uniqueness with the Nissan Qashqai and Ariya, as well as all refreshed models, INFINITI QX55 and QX60.
Nissan will continue to launch the right products at the right time to meet the diverse needs of our customers. We recognize that uncertainties will continue, but through the ongoing execution of our Nissan NEXT plan, we will ensure steady, profitable growth, capitalize on core competencies, enhance quality of business, ensure financial discipline, and restore Nissan NEXT. Nissan will focus on our core business, our products, to become a truly profitable company, even if operating in a severe environment.
We will collaborate closely with our alliance partners as we focus on our Nissan NEXT milestone to return to full year profitability with a 2% operating margin by the end of fiscal year 2021 on a pro forma basis. Nissan is also contributing to the development of a cleaner and sustainable environment. We have recently announced our goal for Nissan to be carbon neutral by 2050.
To meet this aim, we set an ambition to electrify 100% of our all-new vehicle offering by early 2030 in key markets. Nissan LEAF is on the steadfast journey, while Ariya will ring in the next generation of EVs. We will expand our lineup with the 100% electric drive e-POWER technology globally, debuting in the all-new Qashqai in Europe and Sylphy in China. We must achieve this by staying true to our DNA, the spirit of innovation and challenge, as we intend to enhance our corporate and brand value.
In closing, I want to emphasize that our results demonstrate the strong commitment of our employees to reestablishing Nissanness, and cooperation of our suppliers and dealers in helping to bring about a new era for our company. We are committed to regaining our stakeholders' trust as quickly as possible as we drive innovation to enrich people's lives.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Right.
Thank you very much. Now, we would like to move on to the Q&A session. If you have a question, please push raised hand button on the Zoom function. In order to entertain as many questions as possible, please limit the number of questions to one per person. Thank you for your kind understanding and cooperation. Shall we start with the Q&A session?
Yeah. Asahi.
Asahi Shimbun, Kamizawa-san. Kamizawa-san of Asahi Shimbun, it's your turn.
Thank you. I am Kamizawa from Asahi Shimbun. I would like to talk about better quality of sales. In U.S., the sales, you are increasing price and value pricing. On the other hand, if you take on this initiative, you may struggle to increase sales.
You note the sales seem to decrease compared to last December. How do you see the impact of all these actions taken by Nissan?
Thank you for the question. I would like to take on the question, then later, I would like to ask Ashwani-san, who is in charge of the operation, to give you further details. Last year in the third quarter, last year's third quarter, with regards to U.S., I was asked when we are going to hit the bottom and when we will be pursuing recovery.
That was what many people asked. At the time, I said that the strategy to enhance quality of sales is the right one. Having said that, I said it is taking more time than what we expected to recover our performance. Today, as well as the earnings announcement we made last time, U.S. operation, I'm happy to say, is on the right track toward recovery.
Starting with the introduction of new Nissan Rogue, we intend to introduce strong products in the U.S. market so that this translates to a strong recovery, and I am confident about this. Earlier, you talk about sales volume and other details. Naturally, it's about operation and business. In order to enhance market presence, we have to monitor volume. I said we are not pursuing excessive sales. That's our direction. The details will be provided by Ashwani-san. Ashwani-san.
Thank you. Thank you for this question. First, when we talk about value pricing, it's not about the price increase, it is how much customer is recognizing the Nissan technology and the product. This is exactly as per the J.D. Power. The customer is willing and is paying for the new Rogue, which is driven by the value and not by the price. This is directly impacting our profitability, but also the net revenue per unit. That's what about the value pricing. The second thing about the retail, I was just looking at the data after having your question. Our quarter three last year and this year is almost flat. When you look at the retail sales, we are increasing month-on-month.
The challenge which we had and which turned into an opportunity that we created the customer demand between the previous Rogue and the all-new Rogue. When we started the new Rogue in December, we were already sold out the old Rogue. That's why if you look at only December, you will see a gap in the retail. However, when you look at the full quarter, and especially now in January when the Rogue is fully being retailed, we have gained the market share, as I have explained before, to 5.8%. Thank you.
Right.
Thank you very much. Moving on to the next question. Nikkei Shimbun, Oshikiri-san, it's your turn. Oshikiri-san, please.
Hello, I am from Nikkei Shimbun. My name is Oshikiri. I have one question. This time, the sales forecast has been reduced by 150,000 units. How much is due to the shortage of semiconductor? Note production reduction was reported by some media outlets. In which regions do you see the impact or potential impact of semiconductor, including the impact on revenue and profit?
Thank you for your question. What I can say is that the sales volume reforecast, this includes the factors that you indicated, which is the impact of semiconductor as well as risk of the COVID-19. If you look at including the impact on the profit, we provided the new forecast, which is JPY 205 billion of operating loss. For regional breakdown-
We are not ready to give you the regional breakdown, but every day, we are trying to improve the situation on semiconductors while working with suppliers. In these circumstances, we are mitigating the impact of the semiconductor, and that's all what we can say today. Thank you. I couldn't give you a straightforward answer, but what I can say is that we are assuming sufficient risk, and we are doing our best to minimize the negative impact that we foresee. That's my reply. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Going on to the next question. Yomiuri Shimbun company, Mukoyama San, please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Mukoyama of Yomiuri Shimbun. Coming to my question, last year, in November, you announced the profit of next fiscal year, and Mr. Uchida had spoken with confidence. Thereafter, there has been a new wave of COVID-19 and shortage of semiconductor supply. There's more intransparency, uncertainty. Once again, can you confirm with us your determination for profit-making next fiscal year?
Thank you. As you have indicated, there is much uncertainty with regards to the pandemic, and we need to closely watch the situation, as well as the semiconductor supply. As you can see in our results announcement for Q3 on equity basis, plus JPY 27 billion, 1.2% margin has been achieved. If China is included, it will be 2.5%.
Even in the midst of pandemic and shortage of semiconductor supply, this is a single quarter result, but we think that this has contributed to going back to the track of profit-making. Nissan NEXT is focusing on the foundation of finance and minimization of fixed costs. With upgrades in elevated sales from new models and profitability, if you look at next fiscal year, U.S. Rogue and Note on full year basis, we think that these countermeasures will contribute to revenue and profit.
That taken into consideration, although there are short-term uncertainties and challenges, and I'm speaking about the uncertainty with regards to the pandemic and semiconductor supply, we steadfastly think that we will be able to generate a sufficient profit. Even judging from the results of Q3, I think this is great evidence that we are confident for next fiscal year.
Thank you very much. Moving on to the next question. Shindo-san. Shindo-san, it's your turn.
Yes. Magazine X. My name is Shindo. Thank you for the opportunity. Uchida San, thank you for this opportunity. Looking at the documents, I understand that the business circumstances have a negative impact. You are achieving the milestones toward recovery. As a Japanese person, I am looking forward to the recovery and comeback of Nissan. It's a bit different subject. I would like to talk about environmental activities and electrification, which is a key to the green initiatives.
The other day, Nissan announced to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. To this end, you said in early 2030s, you are going to electrify all the new car offerings. Today, you were saying about the collaboration with the railroad company, where you are using the refurbished battery for the railroad crossing. You are working on Nissan Green Program, I understand. Based on electrification, what are your actions?
Could you talk about your commitment and ambition on this front?
Thank you for your question. The railroad crossing battery is one initiative. In 2010, we introduced the first generation Nissan LEAF to contribute to zero emission society. Over the past 10 years, we have developed a lot of experience and know-how and such. There's no one else but Nissan who has this kind of rich experience and know-how. We are not just selling EV. Through EV sales, we are contributing to society from different aspects. Battery is used as static battery source for house and building. At the time of natural disasters, this can be used as emergency power supply. We are also reusing the old batteries for energy, as Ashwani-san mentioned, is one good example.
In Japan, using EV, we are working on Blue Switch to address challenges. More partnerships were concluded at the plant vehicle assembly to enhance efficiency of productivity, energy management, and enhance efficiency of the materials that we consume. Climate change is a globally common theme. This is one of the obligations of a company to fulfill. While we address these issues, we need to deliver profits. Unless we do this, we know the companies will never be appreciated. Through Nissan Green Program, we intend to address many environmental issues and contribute to the solution to the climate change. We will increase the scope and
Speed of our initiatives to contribute to the society, and this will then translate to the growth of Nissan. Nissan is trying to coexist with human beings and nature. To this end, we are driving the innovation. This is our ambition to enhance the corporate value of Nissan.
Thank you very much. Moving on to Nikkan Jidosha. Hasebe-san, it's your turn.
Nikkan Jidosha, Hasebe speaking. Thank you for the opportunity.
I have a question about Japanese market. Once again, I would like you to elaborate on Japanese market. In Nissan NEXT, you are gaining momentum toward the performance recovery. Nissan Note, as well as Ariya, will be introduced later. What's your ambition or expectation towards Japanese market? This is a question for Mr. Uchida.
Yes, thank you for the question. Let me share with you the ambition, and then let me talk about the activities and strategy.
This will be provided by Ashwani-san, who is in charge of the operation. Japanese market is our home market indeed. Unfortunately, because of the past management, we were unable to make enough investments in this home market, and we didn't put enough energy in this market. This year, we introduced new Note. We revealed the new Note. This is well-received in the market, and Nissan Note is equipped with a lot of electrification technology of Nissan. Once you test the car, you know this is the Nissan. Going forward, we are going to implement these kind of strategies in our home market and deliver things that make you feel Nissan NEXT in Japan. Along with the electrification, we are going to start businesses and contribute to businesses in Japan. This is my ambition.
First, in this home market, we want to develop understanding of the customers about Nissan's true value. Specific activities will be provided by Ashwani-san. Go ahead, Ashwani-san.
Japan being our home market, what is very important is to fulfill the expectation, aspirations of Japanese customer. Number one, what is the number one aspiration of Japanese customer? If you look at the Japanese market, 63% is exclusive Japanese customer requirement, starting from kei car to the slide door vans and so on. Second, if you look at the use of the technology, whether it is internet, whether it is software, whether it is hardware, whether it is advanced technology, Japan is the market which drives the technology. If you look at these two things, at first, Nissan has to develop the Japan-specific products, which Nissan is doing, as you saw, Dayz, then Roox, which is the kei car segment for Japan. Nissan will continue that.
In addition to that, whether it is a kei car or a Skyline, Nissan does not will put a hierarchy on the advanced technology. We have put the autonomous driving feature, which is ProPILOT, on kei car, because we believe that the customer needs it even on the kei car and also on the Skyline. If I summarize, Nissan is going to focus on new products specifically for Japan and also on the new technologies. We have launched Roox, we have launched Kicks e-POWER. We have launched all-new Note, months to come, we will be coming up with new models which are already planned, Ariya, Z, so on in the pipeline. Thank you.
We now go on to the next question. Automotive News, Hans. Please go ahead. Hans-san.
Hi there. Thank you for calling me. You can hear me, correct? I'd like to ask about the U.S. and the electrification plan. You have this goal to electrify everything, all your offerings by 2030. Does that apply to the U.S. as well? What kind of market penetration do you think you can get from your electrification in the U.S. around 2030? One more question about that. A lot of automakers are coming out with big investment plans in electric vehicles, in particular, we're talking about billions of JPY being invested over periods of 10 years or a decade or so. How much investment do you see Nissan needing to make in electric or electrified vehicles through 2030, per se? Thank you.
In the first half of 2030 for the new vehicle sales, new models in key markets, we think that we would be able to reach electrified vehicles 100%, and that applies to the U.S. It depends on customer preference. They make their judgment. We have to be well prepared so that we will be able to meet the customer demand. On the other hand, your other point of the question was investment on electrification. As we draft our electrification strategy, we are prepared to make estimations on our investments. At this juncture, I cannot give you any specific number, but we will be proceeding with Nissan NEXT. As we look at a longer horizon beyond Nissan NEXT, we would like to, on a separate occasion, Ashwani will explain that point to you in more detail.
Thank you. First of all, we want electrification to be the consequence and not the objective. This is why Nissan was the pioneer in 2010 to launch the first battery EV. Coming to the footprint of Nissan, as you know that we have got a battery industrial scheme in China, in Japan, in Europe, and in the U.S. In the U.S., we have a battery localized over there. When it comes to Japan, as I explained before, we are absolutely on track to achieve our electrification because customer is recognizing it, because it's going to be competitive, and because the environment will support it. When you go to Europe, as we said, by end of 2023, we will have 100% of our products to be having offer on the electrification.
Moving to the U.S., we have launched LEAF since 2010, and as I presented today, our sales of LEAF is increasing month-on-month in the U.S. Having the competitive example to have battery as well as the EV manufacturing in the U.S., now we are working on how we transit from ICE to the electrification. We do believe that the U.S. is going to copy the electrification mechanism in the other part of the region. As soon as we are ready with our electrification strategy for the U.S., we will be talking about it, but it's on the way. Thank you.
Thank you so much. We would like to move on to Frankfurter Allgemeine . Patrick Welter, it's yours.
Now, do you hear me? Patrick from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Sorry for the delay. Please allow me to ask the question in English. I have two short questions. First, can you tell me when do you expect that the shortage of semiconductors is going to end? Will it be in the first half of the next fiscal year, or will it be the second half? Second question, there is so much talk about Apple and the electric vehicle. Have you been approached by Apple to produce that vehicle, and would you be interested? Thank you.
Hello.
Thank you for the question. Ashwani-san will provide the first question, while second question will be answered by me.
At first, you know why there is a semiconductor global shortage. Of course, there is a mix of automotive usage and non-automotive usage. The automotive usage went down and non-automotive usage went up. Very simple. Second, the application of semiconductors, because of the advanced technologies in the new car, I think each car is having higher sensor ratio as it was before. Two reasons. Markets are coming back.
Obviously, there is a mix, and we have this shortage. As Nissan, this global shortage has impacted us. On the other side, this has given us opportunity to align the flexibility because Nissan is very strong in standardization of the parts to the tier two, tier three, tier four level. We detected this in the month of November and December, and since then, we are working very closely with the suppliers on getting out from this situation.
Nobody has a crystal ball. We believe the cycle is normally six to seven months after you decide on the capacity increase. We think that by May or June next year, I think the whole world should be out of this crisis. Once again, this is based on the assumption of the automotive mix and the non-automotive mix, and we have to just watch what happens in the coming two, three months. We do believe that in May or June, we should be out from this crisis. Thank you.
Coming back to the first question, there's a possibility of concluding the partnership with automaker, and how do we see this? Is this your question?
Yes. Apple to us.
CASE. If you think about the era of CASE, car is not just a means of transportation. It's about delivering new customer value. In order to meet this expectation over the framework of traditional auto industry, we need to take new initiatives. To this end, in each sector, we need to work with the companies who are knowledgeable, with good experience through partnership and collaboration. This is an option that we may take. When new companies emerge auto industry, that's a possibility, too. Going forward, we are undergoing once-in-a-century transformation. We need to take it as an opportunity. Nissan has a DNA of do things that others don't dare to do. We will keep on taking on the challenge.
I'm sorry about the vague answer. Considering the new era of CASE, I am sure the new corporate value will be in question and new players will be emerging in the industry. In these circumstances, Nissan intends to deliver solid corporate value, and that's what we focus on. That's my answer. Thank you very much. We are running out of time. There are some more people who are raising hands. Let me take one more question. One more question. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Back to semiconductors. To the extent you can share with us, on a unit basis, you haven't disclosed the number, with the semiconductor shortage, where have you seen decline in volume? Is there anything unique to Nissan where you were particularly hit by the semiconductor shortage? If so, please let us know.
This question. I think Nissan is part of the global shortage as other OEMs. Having said that, as I said before, Nissan has got strength of commonization of tier two, tier three parts. Maybe there are some specific semiconductors and the chips where Nissan has got advantage because of do we have the full exclusivity. Apart from that, I think Nissan is part of the global shortage. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Because we have the upcoming schedule, we would like to end the Q&A session. Last but not least, I would like to ask Mr. Uchida to make the very last comment. Yes. Thank you for all your questions. As I said last time in November, we recognize that we are still in the negative. We are realistic, well aware of foreseeable risks, and are determined to successfully execute Nissan NEXT business transformation plan. Thank you for your ongoing support. Thank you. With this, we would like to conclude the session for the earnings announcement for fiscal year 2020 Q3. Thank you for attending, and good day.