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Nissan Faces More Challenges Than New ProductNissan Faces More Challenges Than New Product
Incoming Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa lays out the Japanese automaker’s product plan and some goals for bringing product to market faster, but he also has serious brand and credibility challenges to meet.
5 Min Read
The Infiniti brand must be fixed, otherwise Nissan has no premium/luxury offering.
Incoming Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa says he is prioritizing getting more new products to market faster, including advancing joint-venture vehicle development with Honda, even though full merger talks between the two companies broke down in late February.
The auto industry’s push into self-driving and software-defined vehicles “is going to require a lot of work and a lot of investment that probably will need some partner says Ivan Espinosa, who assumes his new role on April 1, in a briefing Wednesday. “I’m open to Honda or other partners, as long as these partners are helping us drive the vision of the business.”
And not just other automakers. Taiwanese iPhone maker Hon Hai Precision Industry has expressed interest in buying French automaker Renault’s stake in Nissan, and the company has had talks with electronics giant Foxconn.
“A CEO is normally dealing with one or two major crises in his or her career,” Espinosa says. “I’m going to have to deal with four or five all at the same time. I have a turnaround to work on. I have a deep morale crisis in the company. I have deep transformational work to do.”
While there are green shoots of hope in turning Nissan’s fortunes around, especially in the U.S., Nissan has issues to fix with brand and marketing, dealer relations and its woeful Infiniti premium unit.
Nissan said this week it will release more than 10 new and updated products in the U.S. and Canada by early 2027. “The U.S. is of critical importance for us – we want it to grow,” says Guillaume Cartier, Nissan chief performance officer. “Products are central to our efforts.”
The U.S. is Nissan’s most important market. In 2024, Nissan’s U.S. sales[BG1] totaled 924,008 units, the company reported, marking a 2.8% increase compared to the prior year. That represented 28% of global sales.
Nissan’s culture has long been driven by sales and pricing, rather than marketing, brand or innovative product design. It infamously washed out in the fullsize pickup truck and minivan categories with the Titan truck and Quest van. The brand has been in and out of the sports car segment. Today, its lineup in the U.S. consists of three sedans (Versa, Sentra, Altima), five CUVs/SUVs (Kicks, Rogue, Murano, Pathfinder and Armada), one pickup (Frontier), one sports car (Z) and two battery-electric vehicles (Leaf and Ariya). Infiniti has the QX80, QX50 and QX55 in production this year. It plans two new electric SUVs for 2026.
To move the metal, Nissan has been offering 0% financing since last year, and its average discounts have been running higher than its closest competitors, per J.D. Power. In 2024, Nissan’s average incentive spending per vehicle in the U.S. was about $2,500. In comparison, Honda’s average incentives were around $1,800 per vehicle, while Toyota’s were about $1,200 per vehicle.
Its North American operation had a market share of 5.6%, down from 7.9% five years ago, per company reports.
Infiniti Frustration
One of Espinosa’s biggest challenges is finally fixing the Infiniti brand. Infiniti has been a muddled business since it launched in 1987. Infiniti has vacillated between sporty aspirations and vague notions of “zen-inspired luxury.” This ambiguity, coupled with a naming scheme overhaul in 2013 that confused customers (changing all models to “Q” and “QX” designations), hurt brand recognition and loyalty. Models like the Q50 and QX60 failed to generate the buzz or excitement of their competitors.
Compounding these issues was Infiniti’s inconsistent global strategy. Efforts to expand into Europe and China faltered due to weak brand equity and poor product-market fit, leading to full exits from both regions. Manufacturing decisions also hurt the brand; rather than developing unique, high-end platforms, Infiniti often relied on reworked Nissan architectures, undermining its premium positioning. In recent years, while competitors have leaned heavily into electrification and technology, Infiniti has lacked a meaningful EV strategy, leaving it adrift in a future-facing market.
Today, Infiniti continues to sell vehicles – primarily in North America – but its relevance in the luxury space is tenuous at best. With shrinking sales, limited innovation, and virtually no cultural cachet, Infiniti stands as a cautionary tale of how a premium badge and early ambition are not enough to sustain an upscale brand without clarity, consistency and meaningful differentiation.
To prevent a mass exodus of dealers, Infiniti has proposed a creative, somewhat unconventional solution: allowing some dealerships to co-locate with Nissan stores. This resolution aims to preserve Infiniti’s brand presence in crucial markets while reducing struggling dealerships’ operational costs.
Green Shoots
Despite financial setbacks and holes in its product lineup, somehow the folks in charge of vehicle quality and Nissan dealers are more than pulling their weight. In the 2025 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, Nissan demonstrated commendable performance. The Nissan Murano and Kicks were recognized as the most dependable in their respective segments.
The 2024 U.S. Initial Quality Study highlighted significant improvements for both Nissan and Infiniti. Nissan advanced from 13th to 6th place overall, reflecting enhanced manufacturing quality. Additionally, the Infiniti QX80 was ranked highest in initial quality in the Large Premium SUV segment.
In the 2024 U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index Study, Infiniti secured the second position among premium brands for the second consecutive year, underscoring a strong commitment to customer satisfaction. Nissan also achieved the top rank in the mass market car segment, marking its best performance in more than three decades.
These findings reflect Nissan and Infiniti’s dedication to enhancing vehicle quality and customer experience, as evidenced by their improved standings in J.D. Power’s recent studies.
WardsAuto talked to a multi-store Nissan dealer, speaking on background because dealers have not been briefed yet by new management, who says the automaker has improved dealer relations by changing what has become a huge point of contention between the factory and dealers.
“They are no longer chasing the stair-step bonuses that were a nightmare,” says the dealer. In a stair-step scheme, the dealer earns increasing bonuses (or incentives) as they hit specific sales targets within a set timeframe (usually monthly or quarterly). The more cars the dealer sells, the more money they get per vehicle, but only after hitting each step.
“That strategy had cheapened the brand as dealers would drastically discount cars at times to try to hit their targets for bonus. We worry that Nissan may go back to that sales strategy which might help them short term, but I think would be a long-term mistake,” the dealer tells WardsAuto.
The message from dealers going forward, the dealer adds: “Focus on producing a good product. My worry from reading the news is that they may not have enough money to continue to develop a strong product lineup. We’ll see.”
––with Nancy Dunham
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