A little over a year into his job, Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa has been making sweeping changes at the troubled Japanese automaker. A massive cost-cutting plan is underway, calling for the elimination of around 20,000 jobs and the closure of seven factories and two design studios. The company is also significantly reducing annual production capacity from 3.5 million to 2.5 million units and cutting the number of platforms from 13 to just 7.
The Re:Nissan recovery plan also calls for bringing new vehicles to market much sooner than before. Under the new strategy, development time for next-generation models will drop from 52 to 37 months, while subsequent derivatives will go from 50 to 30 months. Perhaps the most important element of the recovery effort is renewing the lineup by rolling out a myriad of models across the core Nissan brand and the Infiniti luxury division.
