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Nissan builds and sells cars and trucks around the world, and also sells electric vehicles and the batteries that power them.
Nissan is one of the world's largest carmakers, selling sedans, SUVs, and pickup trucks under the Nissan name and its luxury brand Infiniti. It builds cars in factories spread across Japan, the United States, Mexico, China, and Europe, and sells them in almost every country. The company's main pitch to buyers is value and technology — it was one of the first major automakers to sell a mass-market electric car, the Leaf, back in 2010, and it has kept investing in EVs.
Nissan makes money by building cars and selling them to dealers and distributors, who then sell to people like you and me. It also earns money from financing — helping customers borrow money to buy its cars — and from selling parts and services. The car business itself is brutal: factories are expensive, competition is fierce, and profit margins are thin. Nissan's big bet on EVs was smart and early, but rivals like Tesla and BYD have since surged ahead, and Chinese carmakers in particular have undercut everyone on price. The company is part of a long-standing alliance with Renault, a French automaker. For years the alliance was the backbone of Nissan's strategy — sharing factories, parts, and technology to save money. But the relationship has been messy. In 2018, Nissan's then-chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested in Japan on financial misconduct charges, a saga that rocked the company and strained ties with Renault. Since then, Nissan has been trying to steady itself, and in 2023 it agreed to rebalance the alliance so each side holds roughly equal stakes.
Nissan's recent numbers have been weak. In its fiscal year ending March 2025, the company reported a sharp drop in operating profit and cut its full-year outlook, hurt by tough competition in China and slowing demand for EVs in some markets. It has announced plans to cut thousands of jobs and reduce factory capacity to save money. The stock has struggled. For a company that once looked like an EV pioneer, Nissan now faces the hard question every legacy automaker faces: can it move fast enough to compete with younger, cheaper, and more agile rivals?
Saved answer · last researched 29 Oct 2026