Nissan bets on ‘China speed’ to get back on its feet

Published Sun, Apr 26, 2026 · 12:27 PM

NISSAN Motor is counting on China to reverse its fortunes after headwinds in the US and Japan left the carmaker searching for a way to regain its footing. 

The Japanese company is pushing ahead with a growth plan for China that calls for annual sales to reach one million cars by the end of the decade and, on top of that, exports of hundreds of thousands of vehicles to other parts of the world from factories in the country.

Nissan, which took an early lead in China after forging a partnership with Dongfeng Motor Group in 2003 and found success with the Sylphy sedan, has seen sales volume drop by almost a half after the country’s electric-vehicle upstarts won over buyers.

Even so, Nissan is betting that know-how and relationships developed over two decades will still give it an edge.

“The speed of change keeps getting faster,” Stephen Ma, head of Nissan’s China operations, said during an interview on Friday (Apr 24) at the Beijing auto show. 

It is an ambitious plan, given how brands from the US, Europe and Japan have rapidly lost ground to local competition. Yet, surviving in China against all odds could be Nissan’s best chance at bouncing back after an ageing lineup and management turmoil following the 2018 arrest of former chairman Carlos Ghosn left it struggling to expand sales. 

Ma said that Nissan is keeping pace with the Chinese, having spent two years to develop each model in its latest line-up, whereas legacy brands usually need four to five years. “Twenty-four months is already China speed,” he said.

BYD, Geely and other local EV makers have dramatically reduced the time it takes to conceive, develop and introduce new battery-powered cars with sophisticated software to the market.

Ma said that Nissan’s China sales grew for the first time in seven years during the latest fiscal year, rising 4.5 per cent in the second half from the prior year. Nissan plans to introduce five more models in the country within the next year, which would complete the line-up it promised last year that included 10 brand-new cars ranging from all-electric sedans to plug-in hybrid trucks. 

In addition to selling a million cars annually in China by 2030, CEO Ivan Espinosa said the goal is to export vehicles made in China – 100,000 units at first, then eventually 300,000 – to other markets, a strategy that it had not embraced before. 

The N7 electric sedan will be shipped to Latin America and South-east Asia; the Frontier Pro utility vehicle will be sold in those two markets, as well as in the Middle East. Its newest model, the NX8, will also be exported in the near future, but executives declined to comment on which markets.

Earlier in April, Nissan unveiled a broad makeover of its ageing product lining up, and outlined new sales targets for the US and China. Espinosa said the carmaker plans to reduce the number of models from to 45 from 56 and streamline 80 per cent of its volume into three main “families” of vehicles built on shared platforms.

“We’ve learned our lesson about how to survive in China,” said Isao Sekiguchi, a Nissan executive who is also managing director of the Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company. BLOOMBERG