In an emergency press conference called by Nissan today, the company revealed that its CEO Makoto Uchida would be stepping down from his position on April 1, 2025, and that Ivan Espinosa, the current chief planning officer, will take over as Uchida‘s successor. However, the outgoing CEO will continue to serve as a director until the annual general meeting of shareholders, which is scheduled for June of this year.
Significant personnel changes will also be made to Nissan’s Executive Committee in addition to the top-level adjustments. The modifications are intended to “achieve the company’s short- and mid-term objectives while positioning it for long-term growth,” according to the Japanese automaker. These surprisingly bullish comments come only a few months after the company said that if it did not find a partner soon, it could go bankrupt with 12 months.
Nissan has seen four leadership changes in less than six years as the automaker struggles with declining sales and deteriorating financials. However, there is a darker undertone to Uchida’s dismissal because his disappearing act was a requirement for Honda to resume merger negotiations following the breakdown of those talks less than a month ago, when the CEOs of Honda and Nissan had a falling out.
In order to explore the prospect of a merger, Nissan and Honda first signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in December of last year. However, this MoU was dissolved in February of this year due to disagreements in the firms’ proposed post-merger structure, as stated in a joint press release.
It’s still unclear however if the new CEO appointment would revive merger discussions with Honda. According to other reports, Foxconn, a Taiwanese technology firm, is a serious challenger through its Foxtron electric car business, and Nissan has apparently started negotiating with other parties in an attempt to survive.
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Well, well, this result has been coming for a long time. As soon as merger talks broke down with Honda early this year, Uchida’s fate was sealed. It still remains to be seen just how effective the incoming Espinosa will be and how he relates to tough-talking Honda boss Toshihiro Mibe. But now that Nissan has embarked on a fresh start perhaps Foxconn will show even more interest in Nissan.