No Nissan hybrid vehicles led to downfall says CEO

With no Nissan hybrid vehicles, the automaker is facing major economic issues, according to its CEO. He admits this was a major mistake on Nissan’s part.

In an MSN.com article, Nissan’s Chief Executive Makoto Uchida admitted to why the automaker is laying off 9,000 employees, 20% of workforce, and cutting production U.S. production by 17% as it seeks to cut costs by $2.6 billion. 

“This has been a lesson learned, and we have not been able to keep up with the times,” Uchida said. “We weren’t able to foresee that hybrid electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids would be so popular.”

No Nissan hybrid vehicles

This admission of completely missing out on hybrids and plug-in hybrids is just shocking. Why?

Every one of Nissan’s top competitors currently has or has had hybrid powertrains for years. Nissan doesn’t currently offer a single hybrid in its vehicle lineup. 

For example, its chief Japanese rivals, Toyota and Hybrid, have put hybrids into nearly every SUV and sedan. In fact, one of their best-selling models, the Toyota RAV4, came out with a hybrid powertrain eight years ago in the 2016 model year. 

Honda? It’s CR-V hybrid came out in the 2020 model year.

Those two SUVs alone have combined for nearly 800,000 sales year to date.

Meanwhile the Nissan Rogue has managed 189,156 sales and is down 10.4 percent year to date. And Nissan has cut production of the Rogue and Frontier by 40,000 units. 

Nissan did in fact have hybrids at one point. Up until 2019, the Rogue had a hybrid option and the Pathfinder had a hybrid up until 2015. Also, the Altima had a hybrid for 2010 and 2011.

That’s all before former CEO Carlos Ghosn was shown the door and the new leadership took over in 2019.

How hot are hybrid sales?

A report from the Argonne National Laboratory, multidisciplinary science and engineering research center, spells out their popularity.

“In October 2024, 145,838 HEVs (51,683 cars and 94,155 LTs) were sold in the United States, up 40.6% from the sales in October 2023.

Toyota accounted for a 51.2% share of total HEV sales this month.

A total of 132,799 plug-in vehicles (112,419 BEVs and 20,380 PHEVs) were sold during October 2024 in the United States, up 16.2% from the sales in October 2023. PEVs captured 10.02% of total LDV sales this month.

Cumulatively, 1,269,949 PHEVs and BEVs have been sold in 2024. In total, 6,009,900 PHEVs and BEVs have been sold since 2010.”

Nissan executives paying the price

In an attempt to save the company, Uchida is taking a 50% pay cut along with other executives. 

Also, Chief Financial officer Stephen Ma is stepping down. 

A report also states that unless Nissan can find an investor like a bank, insurance company or another automaker like Honda, it won’t survive more than 12-14 months. 

A merger will likely result in Uchida, and others, losing their jobs.

The bottom line

How could an executive miss all these market signs? In my opinion: Pure stupidity. Nissan, and unfortunately many employees, are paying the price for the singular vision to focus on fully battery electric vehicles and to ignore clear demand for hybrids, among other missteps.

It is just stunning to hear an executive admit to such a colossal mistake.