Nissan Product Lineup To Be Reduced By At Least 10% By 2022

Nissan has released its financial results for the first quarter of the 2019 fiscal year – and the numbers are not good but we'll get to that in a bit. The Japanese company has also confirmed through a new press release that it will reduce the number of models in its portfolio by at least 10 percent by the end of the fiscal year 2022.

The move is part of Nissan's strategic reformation plan that should help the automaker "build an operational base that will ensure consistent and sustainable profitability over the medium term." Simply put, Nissan will optimize its manufacturing operations and reduce costs in search of a more stable financial condition.

The restructuring plan includes reducing the number of employees by about 12,500 people and also reducing the production capacity by approximately 10 percent by 2022. These major initiatives will come in order for Nissan to "improve product competitiveness by focusing investment on global core models and strategic regional models."

Nissan sees the launch of electrified and electric vehicles as a major driving force for future growth together with the ongoing rollout and evolution of the company's ProPILOT driver assistance system. In addition, the automaker will invest in new business areas, similar to the recently-announced exclusive agreement with Waymo.

As far as the financial numbers for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2019 are concerned, Nissan has a lot to think about. The firm generated an operating profit of 1.6 billion yen on net revenues of 2.37 trillion yen, which represents a decrease in the first-quarter net income by 94.5 percent to 6.4 billion yen compared to the same period last year.

"Profitability was negatively impacted by the decrease in revenues and external factors such as raw material costs, exchange rate fluctuations and investments to meet regulatory standards," the company explained in a press release.