Breaking: Nissan Surprises With Strong Profits And Speedy Recovery. Will Own Zero Emission Market Until 2015

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn treated reporters to his trademark Gallic body language and quick-witted repartees during the presentation of the fiscal year 2010 results today at Nissan’s swank waterfront headquarters in Yokohama. Ghosn delighted stockholders and analysts with the news that Japan’s #2 automaker made a net profit of 319.2 billion yen (US $3.72 billion) on net revenues of 8.7731 trillion yen (US $102.37 billion). Operating profit was 537.5 billion yen (US $6.27 billion). Ghosn created much happiness by announcing that the last quarter of the fiscal year, which ended on March 31, resulted in an operating profit of 88.6 billion yen ($1.1 billion), also exceeding expectations.

Like at Toyota yesterday, no guidance for this year’s performance was given.

Other than at Toyota yesterday, Ghosn did not threaten to pack up and leave if the yen won’t get weaker. He reaffirmed his commitment to producing a million cars in Japan. Easy for him to say: In the past fiscal, Nissan made only 28 percent of its cars in Japan, the bulk was made elsewhere. As Nissan grows, this percentage shrinks.

Nissan took a relatively sedate charge of 39.6 billion yen ($488 million) against earthquake losses. Nissan lost five people during the March 11 disaster. Two plants near the epicenter were hard hit. Nevertheless, Nissan plans to be back to normal in October.

Ghosn praised the first mover advantage of the Leaf: “By the time other manufacturers have their own production versions of electric cars ready for mass marketing, the Leaf will have accumulated years of real world experience. The Nissan Leaf and other electric models coming to Nissan and Renault will face very few zero emission competitors until at least 2015.”

More as I have worked through my notes.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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 5 comments
  • Cole Cole on May 12, 2011

    I'd have guessed Honda'd be #2.

    • See 3 previous
    • GiddyHitch GiddyHitch on May 12, 2011

      @GiddyHitch Ha, shows me. I guess that I'm too fixated on all of the X6s that I see out there and nowhere else.

  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
  • B-BodyBuick84 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport of course, a 7 seater, 2.4 turbo-diesel I4 BOF SUV with Super-Select 4WD, centre and rear locking diffs standard of course.
  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
  • Tassos Jong-iL Communist America Rises!
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