Nissan Motor is seeking to launch seven new models in Africa as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
Over the next two years, the managers of the company said that Nissan Motor Co is seeking to launch seven new models in Africa as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, on Monday, while the Japanese automaker is trying to focus on high growth markets.
- Nissan Motor to launch seven new models in Africa
- It plans to transform Africa into a hub for light commercial vehicles
- Nissan said it would spend $174.07 million on its Navarra model
- Yokohama-based Nissan, which sank its first annual loss in 11 years
- Uchida apologized and promised to restore Nissan by 2023
After the epidemic triggered its first annual loss in 11 years, the company announced last month that it plans to reduce the number of models it produces worldwide.
Nissan South Africa Managing Director Shinkichi Izumi said Nissan will expand its SUV and crossover portfolio with seven new models in Africa, four of which will be in the SUV (sport utility vehicle) segment.
It plans to transform Africa into a hub for light commercial vehicles (LCVs), increasing the production of its popular Navara pick-ups and open-air plants in Ghana and Kenya, Isumi said.
Nissan said it would spend $174.07 million on its Navara model last year, but did not release details on investment and production levels for the region.
“We are going to produce the new Navara model domestically and we are also looking at exports,” Guillaume Cartier, head of Nissan’s Africa, Middle East and India (AMI) region, said in a media call.
Face it with angry shareholders
Nissan chief executive Makoto Uchida told shareholders on Monday after the automaker turned red amid sales and plant closures in Spain and Indonesia.
Uchida apologized for the bad results and promised to restore it by 2023, with cost-cutting and new models showing off electric cars and auto-driving technology.
“We will overcome these challenges without compromising them,” he told a live broadcast meeting. “I promise to bring Nissan back on the growth trajectory.”
All automakers in the world have been affected by nose-diving sales caused by the coronavirus infection.
But the problems are particularly serious for Nissan Motor, which has already struggled to defend its reputation after the financial scandal of its former star executive Carlos Ghosn.
Yokohama-based Nissan, which sank its first annual loss in 11 years, reported $6.2 billion in red ink for the fiscal year that ended in March. Due to uncertainty about the epidemic, it did not offer a plan for this year.
An angry shareholder got up and said executives should leave more of their paycheck as investors get zero dividends. Another has argued that Nissan needs to do more to strengthen its rule, and things have been getting worse since the arrest of Ghosn, who was arrested in late 2018.
One partner appeared to speak for Ghosn, insisting that Nissan had lost public confidence after his expulsion and offered no opportunity to defend himself on issues that could be solved at home, but did not appear to be working with prosecutors and government officials.
