By Kosaku Narioka

Nissan Motor forecast a return to net profit this fiscal year after reporting its seventh straight quarterly net loss.

The expected turnaround comes as the Japanese carmaker has taken a series of restructuring steps to slash costs and address falling sales, including selling its headquarters, cutting jobs and reducing manufacturing sites and global production capacity.

Chief Executive Ivan Espinosa, who took over as the company's chief in April last year, said that while there are a number of actions to implement, the company has changed dramatically over the past year.

"I think we have shown our potential," he said.

In the past few months alone, the company has announced plans to slash hundreds of jobs in Europe and overhaul its operations in the region, said it would discontinue underperforming models and streamline its global product portfolio, and agreed to sell its South African plants to Chinese carmaker Chery Automobile.

Nissan is also taking steps to improve its brand appeal, recently teaming up with Uber Technologies and U.K. self-driving car startup Wayve to offer robotaxi services. A pilot program in Tokyo is planned for late 2026.

Thanks to those efforts, the company now expects to swing to net profit of 20.00 billion yen, equivalent to $126.9 million, for the year that began in April. It projected revenue to rise 8.3% to Y13.000 trillion, with global sales expected to increase 4.7% to 3.30 million units this fiscal year, following a 5.8% drop the year prior.

Espinosa said the impact from the Middle East conflict would drag its vehicle sales by 19,000 units in the first half and weigh on profit by Y15 billion due to lower sales and higher material costs.

The Japanese carmaker on Wednesday recorded a net loss of Y282.9 billion for the three months ended March, narrowing from Y676.0 billion a year earlier. Revenue declined 1.7% to Y3.430 trillion.

U.S. tariffs dragged fourth-quarter operating profit by Y54.0 billion. Japanese autos are subject to a 15% tariff following the trade deal reached with Washington in July. Extraordinary losses of Y344.2 billion were large enough to erase an operating profit of Y68.1 billion.

For the year ended March, Nissan booked Y240.12 billion in impairment losses for its business assets. Its fiscal-year net loss was Y533.095 billion.

Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 13, 2026 09:25 ET (13:25 GMT)

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