Nissan to End Production of Compact Van
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Nissan Motor Co. will stop making its AD compact van in November to pare back excess production as Honda Motor Co. prepares to fold the flailing carmaker into its business.
Manufacturing unit Nissan Shatai Co. hasn’t made any decisions on job cuts, a Nissan spokesperson said, denying an earlier report by Yomiuri newspaper that several hundred jobs would be lost when production of the van ceases.
The AD van accounted for about 7,000 of the 150,000 cars Nissan Shatai produced during the 2023 fiscal year at its Shonan plant in Kanagawa. The NV200 compact van is also manufactured at the same plant. Nissan has a 50% stake in Nissan Shatai.
Nissan has already announced thousands of job cuts and plans to eliminate a fifth of its manufacturing capacity as it struggles to turnaround a 94% slump in net income. Pushed to the brink, it last year sought a lifeline from Honda, though the latter has made clear that a Nissan recovery is prerequisite for any sort of tie-up between the two carmakers.
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About 6,700 of the 9,000 job cuts announced by Nissan late last year will be in its production units, Nikkei reported Jan. 21, without saying where it got the information. In Thailand, about 1,000 workers will be reassigned or cut by fall of this year and roughly 6% of staff at its North American unit have applied for voluntary retirement, the newspaper said.
A Nissan spokesperson declined to comment on the Nikkei report.
The historic deal with Honda, which would effectively split Japan’s carmakers into two groups, has put Nissan’s business under even greater scrutiny. Kyodo News reported last week that Honda had asked Nissan whether it would be able to buy out part of Renault SA’s 35.7% stake in order to prevent foreign influence while negotiations are underway.
Honda and Nissan are set to announce a framework for negotiations later this month, with plans to list a separate holding company in August 2026.
Written by Nicholas Takahashi and Tsuyoshi Inajima
