Burning through piles of cash as plants sit idle, sales plummet, and the bulk of its vast workforce still demands payment during the virus-borne production shutdown, General Motors is taking new measures to protect its finances.

On Monday, the automaker announced a number of steps designed to anger shareholders in the short term, but a production restart date remains as elusive as before. (Read More…)

The shutdown of Nissan’s U.S. manufacturing plants on March 20th was initially expected to last until April 6th. A good-enough timeline, one supposes, as Nissan (like all other automakers) waited to see exactly how bad the surging coronavirus pandemic would get… and how local and state governments would move to combat it.

You know the rest. April 6th came and went, as did all other early production restart dates in the industry, with no returning workers. Minding its constrained funds, Nissan laid off 10,000 U.S. workers on April 7th. Now, there’s a new return date — not actually a specific one, but one the automaker might actually stick to. (Read More…)

As assembly plants turned out the lights across North America in late March, automakers were quick to call upon new credit lines to ensure fiscal stability in the coming months. No one’s really sure by just how much the coronavirus pandemic will hamper sales and profits.

While Nissan, cash-strapped as it is (and facing a new crisis after tackling too many in recent times), has already furloughed its U.S. workforce, that doesn’t seem to be enough to satisfy company bean counters. The automaker is reportedly on the hunt for available cash. (Read More…)

For an automaker that was already bleeding money and watching sales tallies shrink like a man who’s just hopped in the pool, the coronavirus pandemic came along at exactly the wrong time for Nissan.

As its lays off up to 10,000 U.S. workers amid an industry-wide shutdown, Nissan’s chief operating officer is already thinking about a brighter, more certain future. (Read More…)

Not much time passed after Ford chopped compensation for 300 top executives before General Motors decided to free up financial breathing room via payroll costs.

The automaker has enacted a sweeping plan to weather the coronavirus storm by cutting the pay of its salaried workforce by 20 percent, with 6,500 U.S. workers incapable of working from home placed on leave. Employees aren’t expected to swallow the loss out of the goodness of their own hearts, however — GM promises they’ll see the missing money one day. (Read More…)

Looking to cover its financial ass with available cash, Ford Motor Company announced a series of measures on Thursday to ease it through the ongoing pandemic.

If you’re a shareholder, kiss that dividend goodbye. However, if you’re in the mood to skip the toilet paper line outside Costco and head to the dealer instead, the Blue Oval has an offer for you. (Read More…)

Nissan’s attempt to slash costs amid a protracted sales and profit slump will mean the end of two regional offices in the United States.

The news comes after a slew of measures aimed at reining in spending, the most recent of which was a buyout package offered to U.S. employees over the age of 52. With two years of declining sales on its ledger, the automaker figures fewer vehicles sold should result in fewer offices. (Read More…)

As Jaguar Land Rover lunges forward with its “Project Charge” turnaround plan, things aren’t nearly as grim as they were a year ago. Which is exactly what the automaker’s parent, Tata Motors, wants to hear.

Despite a softening in global sales, the automaker made progress on many fronts, crediting its cost-cutting and product plan with a return to black ink. (Read More…)

There’s certainly no love lost between former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn and the automaker he once helmed. After trashing the company’s sales performance in a Lebanon media conference earlier this month, during which he again accused Nissan of conspiring with Japanese officials to orchestrate his arrest, we know hear he gives the automaker maybe two or three years before it hits rock bottom.

“Rock bottom” is where former CEO Hiroto Saikawa said his company was at last May. Maybe there’s still a ways to go. (Read More…)

Maybe it won’t be needed, what with a new sport-utility vehicle on the way, but Aston Martin’s deflated stock price and profit dive has the British automaker in search of a financial parachute. By that, we mean investors who can pump a little cash into the company while boosting shareholder confidence.

After a disappointing year, Aston Martin needs to chart a path to better finances, and a Chinese company that’s no stranger to endangered European brands might just be that sugar daddy. (Read More…)

With sales and profits nowhere near where it would like them to be, Nissan is reportedly clinging to every penny in its possession. Following an earlier report of a two-day furlough of U.S. staff scheduled for the first week of the new year, Reuters reports that savings will now be achieved wherever the company can find them.

Don’t expect to see many executives or staff winging their way across the globe in the coming months. (Read More…)

As Christmas looms, Nissan just placed an unwanted gift in the stockings of its U.S. employees. Sinking sales, combined with a global streamlining of its cash-strapped operation, has led the automaker to give all employees two unpaid days off of work in January, Automotive News reports.

In a memo to employees obtained by the publication, Nissan’s U.S. arm laid out the emergency cost-cutting measures in full. It seems no one gets off the hook. (Read More…)

Nissan’s new chief executive, Makoto Uchida, believes now is the time to reassess its corporate partnership with Renault. In case this is the first automotive-related article you’ve read this year, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance is sickly. Bizarre financial scandals involving the group’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn (and others), internal power struggles, serious money troubles — the situation is rife with headaches. But Uchida says the only way to cope is to publicly recognize the elephant in the room and see what can be done.

“The alliance is critical to reach our goals,” Uchida said at Nissan’s headquarters in Yokohama on Monday. “We need to look at what worked within the alliance, and what didn’t, and decide how to go forward.” (Read More…)

A new report from Edmunds tries to make a case against Ford and General Motors placing their small- and medium-sized cars on an iceberg and setting it adrift. We don’t even need to see the metrics to agree. Ditching cars for higher-margin crossovers and SUVs always seemed a little short-sighted. Without entry-level models, you’re likely to get fewer entry-level (i.e. new) customers, and several of the models axed from North American lineups happened to be the most enjoyable to drive.

Selfishly, we like to see plenty of variety among mainstream brands.

Edmunds’ concern isn’t so much about Ford and GM losing money; rather, it’s more about the automakers setting themselves up for failure further down the line. The analysis revealed that 42 percent of Cruze and Focus owners are choosing to stay in the passenger car segment, rather than spending a little (or lot) more to purchase crossovers and SUVs. Meanwhile, 23 percent of Cruze owners and 31 percent of Focus owners who traded in their car in 2019 ended up buying something similar from a competing automaker.  (Read More…)

Analysts predicted a less-than-stellar quarter for Ford Motor Company, so it was not a shock to see turbulence in the company’s third-quarter financials. The company’s net income dropped 57 percent in Q3 2019, the result of currency changes and restructuring efforts. Revenue ($37 billion) was down on a global scale, shrinking 2 percent. Earnings per share shrunk from 25 cents to 11 cents.

While the automaker finds itself in the midst of ongoing cost-cutting and a reorganization of its regional businesses, the North American launch of a key product didn’t go as planned, forcing Ford CEO Jim Hackett to claim the company’s efforts fell below expectations. (Read More…)