Nissan Is Cutting 15% of Its Workforce, Canceling Its EV Future, and Getting Hacked… All at Once

If Nissan were a person, this would be the part of the movie where they’re holed up in a dimly lit motel off the highway, chain-smoking Marlboros, refreshing their bank account, and looking up “how to fake your own death.” Because hoo boy… the hits just keep coming.

Let’s rewind. A few months ago, Nissan flirted with Honda like a desperate dude at last call. They pitched a merger. Honda squinted, swirled the wine in the glass, and said “Actually… we’d rather just own you.” That was the end of that. Even Carlos Ghosn, the ex-CEO-turned-commentator hiding out in Lebanon (and probably watching this unfold like a telenovela), called the whole merger attempt “desperate.” And I can’t disagree, he might be onto something.

Well today, it got a whole lot more desperate. Nissan just announced it’s laying off 20,000 workers, or 15% of its entire global workforce. That’s an extra 11,000 jobs on top of the 9,000 they already planned to cut last year. For context, that’s roughly the population of Sedona, Arizona, gone from the payroll. This comes after its U.S. and China sales bombed, dealership incentives surged, and the company went through a leadership shuffle that’s done little to right the ship.

In fact, Nissan expects a record-breaking loss of up to $5.1 billion) for the fiscal year that just ended. Not only is it “bad”... it’s the worst financial year in company history. And if you thought maybe they were doubling down on the future with electric vehicles or some big innovation push, think again. Nissan just canceled plans to build a $1 billion EV battery plant in Japan. This was supposed to be the cornerstone of their future… cheaper batteries, better range, a domestic supply chain backed by $384 million in government funding. And they just bailed.

Over in the land of “What else could go wrong?”, hackers at a recent cybersecurity conference demonstrated that they could remotely control a Nissan Leaf from halfway across the world. That’s right… steering, microphone access, infotainment screen… the whole nine yards.

If you’re wondering what Nissan’s actual strategy is right now, it seems to be: Cut costs. Cut people. Pray to the ghost of Ghosn. And quietly hope Honda will change its mind and save them. Sales in the U.S. are trash. Sales in China are even stinkier trash. Their lineup feels like it was designed in 2014 and doesn't differentiate itself from the competition. Sure there’s a planned new LEAF later this year, but how am I supposed to believe this one won’t be hacked while I’m on my way to the grocery store?

Carlos Ghosn might be on the run, but his words are still chasing Nissan: “The company is in a desperate situation.” Hard to argue with the guy when Nissan looks less like a 90 year old car company and more like a SPAC that went public in 2021 and was funded by YouTube ads. So if you’re holding Nissan stock… maybe don’t.

PS: It’s a mess out there.

One day the market’s ripping, the next day it’s Black Monday all over again. Recent earning’s reports have been a total coin flip. One stock beats and explodes 30%… the next misses by a penny and gets sent to the Shadow Realm. And through it all, everyone’s begging for Jerome Powell to finally cave and cut rates.

But underneath all the panic headlines (“Inflation too sticky!” “Recession imminent!” “Tariffs round 4 incoming!”) something wild is happening…

We’re seeing violent price action. Especially in the small-cap space, where low floats and high anxiety are creating the perfect recipe for 100%+ pops before lunchtime. Some of these names are moving 200%+ in under 24 hours… and to our knowledge, NO ONE else is covering them.

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Stock.News does not have positions in companies mentioned.