In the early years, the sales of Japanese cars were ranked first in the world, and many Japanese brands were well-known!
Among so many brands, Nissan is definitely a big boom!
This big company has had a hard time in recent years. It suffered a terrible loss last year. The number of layoffs soared from the original 9,000 to 20,000. Even the old factory that has been more than 60 years old has been closed. It is simply a worry!
How did Nissan do it? This is really confusing!
Glorious past
In 1933, Japan’s automobile manufacturing technology was still learning toddlers, and many large companies did not dare to enter this circle easily.
Building a car is like being unable to get along with money, and it has been unable to see and touch profits for several years!
There was a boss named Yoshisuke Ayukawa who was so brave that he was like a big kite in the sky. He pulled two guys to raise 10 million yen and established the “auto car manufacturing company”. As a result, he transformed gloriously the next year and changed it to “Nissan”.
It was really hard at the beginning. Nissan was prepared for the psychological hint of losing 25 million yen per year, but behind Ayukawa Yoshisuke, there was a magnificent industry leader who gritted his teeth and persevered.
In 1935, Nissan set up a factory in Yokohama and began to build cars with assembly lines. At that time, it was Japan’s first gear!
The car they built first was called “Datsan”. The price was as cheap as expired dishes, and the fuel consumption was as low as water. It was especially suitable for Japanese roads. It soon became as hot as a tornado!
By 1937, Nissan could build more than 8,000 cars a year. This was like a cheat in Japan at that time, and it was amazing!
Later, as soon as the war ended, Japan’s economy seemed to fall into an abyss, and Nissan’s life was like it was in winter, which was extremely difficult.
The US military once simply said that Japan could not build cars. It took a long time to make a comeback until 1947, but they only made them build hundreds of cars every year!
At that time, Nissan almost collapsed its economy, and its money was as tight as an old man, and its machines were almost turned into antiques, which made the workers not work together.
Fortunately, in 1950, Nissan was breathless after placing a large order by the US military, seized the opportunity to upgrade equipment and improve its technical level.
When it was late in the 1950s, Nissan got on the line with foreign car manufacturers, especially learned some skills from the Austin company in the UK. As a result, the DATSUN 210 sedan was so powerful!
This car won the game in Australia and instantly became a star!
Later, Nissan launched the Bluebird sedan, which became very popular as soon as it was launched, and became a hot product for the family, stabilizing Nissan’s status as an iron barrel.
In the 1960s, Nissan began to climb up rapidly, not only taking root in its own home, but also selling its cars to Americans.
Later, Nissan made a lot of revival tricks and wanted to push global sales by one million by 2004!
These plans were simply amazing, and Nissan quickly got rid of the losses and became one of the fastest-making auto companies in the world at that time.
In our land in China, Nissan has gradually found its own position.
In 1973, they transported their cars to China for the first time, and then successively opened cooperative companies such as Zhengzhou Nissan and Dongfeng Nissan.
Sales volume has increased rapidly, and 1 million cars have been smashed in five years, writing the legend of domestic car companies at that time!
Start the downhill road
Nissan has been a bit dirty recently. The big brother who used to be an electric car can’t even drive a small car now.
In July 2025, Nissan shouted that it would close the factory on Kanagawa Maihama.
The factory has started construction in 1965. The cars built in total can circle the earth several times. It is also the birthplace of the world’s first mass-produced electric car, Leaf!
To put it bluntly, it’s like suddenly not hungry after eating, who else can do what!
The progress of working in this factory is like a snail being slow, only 40% of it, and it has not reached the level of making money. If you continue working, the money will fly away like flowing water!
This matter is not over yet. Nissan plans to reduce global factories from 17 to 10, and to lose 20,000 employees, and reduce annual output from 3.5 million to 2.5 million.
The decline in sales is the biggest problem facing Nissan.
After turning the account book in March 2025, Nissan lost 670.9 billion yen, but made 426.6 billion the year before. The situation really plummeted!
It cannot be sold at all, especially in China and the United States. Nissan’s car sales are like eggplant made from frosted, and it does not rise. The inventory is piled up like a mountain. Restructuring is costly and it will be costly. The losses will come naturally.
The US market is as bad as a wall. I heard that Trump intends to charge a 25% tax on all non-US cars starting from April 2025!
In order to survive, Nissan had to throw away the car and lost 21.7% as soon as it was sold, and its profit was crushed to the point of being as thin as a biscuit.
What’s even more crazy is that Nissan’s cars have been full of quality problems like mountains recently.
Just a few days ago, a car owner angrily criticized Dongfeng Nissan’s Teana, saying that the cover of his new car’s center console was rusty like an antique. When he picked up the car, he found that the car had been in stock for a long time. The 4S store didn’t tell him in advance!
Some car owners encountered the fact that the air conditioner air outlet broke and fell.
Nissan thought of a solution and planned to make a big change, preparing to close the door, lay off personnel, and reduce production capacity, just to save 500 billion yen in a wallet.
However, the competition in the electric car market is getting more and more irritating. Nissan actually used the Leaf trick in 2010, but the new products behind it are really disappointing!
Nowadays, pure electric vehicles account for only 7% of their sales, compared with competitors such as BYD and Tesla!
Coupled with the US tariffs, the Chinese market is not glorious, and it is really difficult for Nissan to make a comeback.
However, Nissan is also thinking about new tricks and is preparing to move part of the production to the much cheaper Kyushu factory, so that it can better utilize production capacity!
In our Chinese market, the sales of fuel vehicles seem to have fallen into a gutter, but the electric vehicle N7 is selling well!
Whether they can turn the tables against the wind in the future depends entirely on whether they can make a name for electric cars again.
If it were just about closing the door and laying off people, consumers would not necessarily believe in this brand anymore. They probably had to wipe it clean before going on.
