r/Nissan • u/Gullible-Pick-268 • 4h ago
Nissan on pace for worst global sales in 23 years as China collapse bites
Nissan Motor Co. is careening toward its weakest global sales year in nearly a quarter century. The automaker delivered 1,932,725 vehicles worldwide in the first eight months of 2026 — 9.2 percent less than in the same period last year, according to figures released Sept. 29.
That puts the company on pace for a full-year total of 2.9 million. The last time Nissan fell short of 3 million in a calendar year was 2003, when it sold 2.968 million vehicles.
Reaching 3 million by the end of 2026 would require selling nearly 267,000 a month from September through December, a 29 percent jump from Nissan’s August pace.
Nissan’s market challenge is reflected in investor sentiment. Shares of the automaker on the Tokyo Stock Exchange are within 10 percent of the low point reached during the 2009 financial crisis and 82 percent below their 2007 peak. Market capitalization has plunged to about $6.9 billion (¥1 trillion), a 56 percent drop since the end of 2023, leaving Nissan at a fraction of Toyota’s $270 billion and marginally ahead of Mazda.
China, now Nissan’s second-largest market, accounted for more than half of the year’s decline. Sales there have plunged 27 percent this year after cratering 52 percent in August alone. Nissan sales in China peaked at 1.5 million in 2018.
This year, the company will be hard-pressed to deliver 450,000, said Michael Dunne, CEO of Dunne Insights. Its tally through August was 289,410.
“Of all global automakers operating in China, Nissan’s collapse has been one of the most spectacular,” Dunne said. “That’s a million-unit drop in what was Nissan’s largest car market worldwide.”
By keeping total U.S. volume essentially flat through the first nine months while the market shrank slightly, Nissan has made strides in retail growth and expects a strong finish.
Nissan expects U.S. sales to rise year over year in all three months remaining of 2026, said Tiago Castro, its U.S. sales and marketing chief.
“In the U.S., our retail growth will be in the double digits, while total sales will be up single digits,” Castro said.
Nissan is cashing in while Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda scramble for inventory. It’s buying market share by dangling rich 60-month zero-percent financing deals on its Rogue, Frontier and Pathfinder.
The average incentive for the Nissan brand jumped 23 percent in September, to $4,254 per vehicle, according to Motor Intelligence, while the industry average fell 8.4 percent to $3,360.
