Nissan ignored hybrids, and now it’s paying for it

If you’ve been making headlines lately, you know it Nissan is in a very bad way. One executive at the embattled automaker reportedly told the media that the company has 12 to 14 months to survive; it cut its annual profit forecast by 70% as it cut 9,000 jobs early last month; and hopes for a new business partner as Renault now holds a historically low 36% in its distant ally. No giant loses its leadership in the industry as a result of one bad decision, although if you’re looking for a contributing factor, everyone seems to agree that Nissan’s complete disregard for demand in the hybrid market didn’t help.

In a comprehensive story on all the hype surrounding Nissan’s current predicament Reutersanonymous sources told the news agency that the automaker has halved the number of electric cars as customers in the States have opted for conventional and hybrid cars instead. And then, once Nissan realized it had put its eggs in the wrong basket, it apparently considered consumer behavior a fad and decided not to correct course.

“It’s an excuse, but until this time last year, we couldn’t have predicted the rapid growth in demand for hybrids,” Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said during the company’s earnings press conference last month.

Meanwhile, in China, where Nissan was strong, the public dismissed its proposals as outdated. Take the Sylphy E-Power hybrid compact sedan, for example. The Sylphy is what Nissan calls ours Center in some Asian markets, but trans Reuters report, Chinese car buyers didn’t even know it was a hybrid because it looked almost exactly like a gas.

The irony of it all is that Nissan was the first to launch a modern production electric car with the Leaf. The pride of claiming such an important milestone is somewhat justified, but what good a product like the Leaf can do for the environment ultimately depends on the people who buy it – and you don’t need us to tell you that Leaf was not a popular seller. The That’s all an electric SUV is naturally closer to the electric cars Americans would buy, but that’s about it yet EV is mediocre at that.

So what can Nissan do? Naturally, the move is aimed at getting some damn hybrids in the showroom. Unfortunately, it looks like it will take a while. A plug-in hybrid version of the Rogue is reportedly in the works, but that’s like texting your friends that you’re “on your way” and you haven’t even put on your shoes yet. It is expected to arrive in the 2026 model year Car and driverso it’s more like late 2025 and it will use a hybrid system similar to the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. Now look –The Outlander is actually a decent carbut if Mitsubishi beats you in anything in 2024, you’re not in the best of health as a car company.

Which makes it even more depressing Nissan did sell the Rogue Hybrid not too long agobut for the present generation it is not resurrected. It is reasonable to assume that whoever is responsible for this decision regrets it. Hopefully, Nissan will have a chance to address this issue before the anonymous executive’s prediction of death by February 2026 comes true.

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