Nissan records biggest-ever financial loss

Nissan has got a long road ahead of it after the Japanese firm posted its worst financial results on record.

The automaker’s 2020/21 fiscal year report this week revealed a recorded annual operating loss of ¥150.65 billion (AU$1.78 billion).

The news doesn’t sound great – it’s a yearly result three times greater than 2019 – but Nissan believes that it could have been a lot worse.

In a statement issued by the automaker, the operating loss of ¥150.65 billion was said to be nowhere near as bad as the full-year forecast made at the beginning of the last fiscal year in April 2020, which predicted a net loss of ¥448.7 billion (AU$5.3 billion).

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Like most carmakers, Nissan cited the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent global semiconductor shortage as the main two reasons for the poor financial results.

However, the Yokohama outfit said it was buoyed by recent sales figures, with its global retail volume for the 2021/22 fiscal year expected to grow by 8.6 per cent.

The automaker also predicts a much better financial result for the next fiscal year, with operating profit said to stabilise.

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Nissan’s NEXT strategy, which was unveiled in 2020, is said to be on the right track too, with the firm believing a five per cent operating margin by the end of FY2023 is still achievable.

The Next strategy has already included the consolidation of its global product line-up from 69 models down to roughly 55, and has also resulted in the closure of two of its manufacturing facilities in Spain and Indonesia.

The product culling hasn’t affected the automaker’s local offerings though, with a spokesperson for Nissan Australia telling WhichCar that its product line-up remains unchanged.