Nissan offers buyouts to salaried workers as U.S. business slides

Nissan Motor Co. will cut its U.S. salaried workforce through a voluntary severance program as the Japanese automaker's fortunes falter in its second-largest market.

Nissan confirmed the plan to Automotive News. The automaker said buyout packages were offered to white-collar Nissan and Infiniti employees at least 52 years old in certain nonmanufacturing business units and to those 55 years and over in the manufacturing organization. Hourly production workers are not affected.

In the U.S., Nissan employs about 21,000 people, including about 9,000 hourly workers at three Southeast factories.

Spokesperson Kyle Bazemore declined to say how many salaried jobs Nissan intends to cut or how many employees the company expects to take the severance package. He said a "small percentage" of the salaried workforce is eligible.

Nissan seeks to "optimize business operations and remain competitive for the future," Bazemore said. "We continue to evolve to meet the needs of the global automotive industry."

The automaker offered similar buyouts in the U.S. in 2019 and 2020 alongside factory layoffs. It cut employee travel budgets by half in late 2019 and put the U.S. organization on two days of unpaid furlough in January 2020. Bazemore said Nissan does not plan layoffs or other expense reduction measures.

Nissan, like some of its peers, is tapping the brakes on spending as new-vehicle sales slow and market competition heats up.

Automotive News reported in late July that Stellantis is continuing a corporate cost-cutting campaign with a new voluntary separation program for U.S. salaried employees. The parent company of Ram, Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler also offered buyouts to 6,400 U.S. salaried employees last November in response to "challenging market conditions."

The Nissan group's U.S. business has stumbled in the postpandemic era. Market share dropped to 5.8 percent last year from 7.9 percent in 2019.

Problems with key model changeovers in the U.S. and a lack of in-demand hybrid vehicles have dragged Nissan's business globally.

Group operating profit collapsed 99 percent to ¥995 million ($6.9 million) in the three months ended June 30. Net income tumbled 73 percent to $199 million. Worldwide sales essentially stalled at 787,000 vehicles in the April-to-June quarter.

Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida pinned the lousy financial performance on the U.S. operation, which saw sales decline 3.1 percent to about 237,000 vehicles.

"We were unable to boost volume as expected," Uchida said.

In March, a delayed launch of the freshened 2024 Rogue crossover — Nissan’s best-selling nameplate — prompted Nissan to dial up incentive spending to move the outgoing model.

According to data from Motor Intelligence, the Nissan division spent $3,713 per vehicle on incentives in March, the highest among full-line brands.

The Nissan brand had a 104 days' supply of inventory at the end of February, according to Cox Automotive, versus a national average of 76 days.

"We knew that optimization of inventories in the U.S. would pressure our profit," Uchida said.