Is Nissan raising the red flag? Nissan is now asking suppliers to delay payments, sparking concern over the automaker’s future.

Nissan asks supplier to delay payments to free up cash

As part of its recovery plan, Nissan announced in May that it plans to cut 20,000 jobs, or around 15% of its global workforce. It’s also closing several factories to free up cash and reduce costs.

According to several emails and company documents (via Reuters), Nissan is working with its suppliers to delay payments.

“They could choose to be paid immediately or opt for a later payment,” Nissan said. The company explained in a statement to Reuters that it had incentivized some of its suppliers in Europe and the UK to accept more flexible payment terms, at no extra cost.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

The emails show that the move would free up cash for the first quarter (April to June), similar to its request before the end of the financial year.

One employee said in an email to co-workers that Nissan was asking suppliers “again” to delay payments. The emails, viewed by Reuters, were exchanged between Nissan workers in Europe and the United Kingdom.

Nissan is taking immediate action as part of its recovery plan, aiming to turn things around, the company said in a statement.

“While we are taking these actions, we aim for sufficient liquidity to weather the costs of the turnaround actions and redeem bond maturities,” the company said.

Nissan didn’t comment on the internal discussions, but the emails did reveal it gave suppliers two options. They could either delay payments at a higher interest rate, or HSBC would make the payment, and Nissan would repay the bank with interest.

The company had 2.2 trillion yen ($15.2 billion) in cash and equivalents at the end of March, but it has around 700 billion yen ($4.9 billion) in debt that’s due later this year.

As part of Re:Nissan, the Japanese automaker’s recovery plan, Nissan looks to cut costs by 250 billion yen. By fiscal year 2026, it plans to return to profitability.

Electrek’s Take

With an aging vehicle lineup and a wave of new competition from China, such as BYD, Nissan is quickly falling behind.

Nissan is launching several new electric and hybrid vehicles over the next few years, including the next-gen LEAF, which is expected to help boost sales.

In China, the world’s largest EV market, Nissan’s first dedicated electric sedan, the N7, is off to a hot start with over 20,000 orders in 50 days.

The N7 will play a role in Nissan’s recovery efforts as it plans to export it to overseas markets. It will be one of nine new energy vehicles, including EVs and PHEVs, that Nissan plans to launch in China.

Can Nissan turn things around? Or will it continue falling behind the pack? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Ford has long been rumored to be in discussions with Tesla about licensing its Full Self-Driving technology, but CEO Jim Farley has now shut down those rumors.

Farley confirmed that Ford talked with Tesla, but he believes Waymo has a better solution.

Back in 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned that he had early discussions with other automakers about licensing self-driving technology, but these discussions didn’t lead to any agreements.

In 2023, the CEO announced that Tesla would be open to licensing Autopilot and FSD to other automakers.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

However, a few months later, Musk said “automakers don’t believe Tesla Full Self-Driving is real”, but he claimed they will soon.

In 2024, Musk claimed that Tesla was in discussions with “one major automaker about licensing Full Self-Driving.”

Ford was rumored to be the automaker in question due to its limited effort in autonomous driving and the fact that it was the first automaker to initiate the adoption of Tesla’s charge connector as the new North American standard.

The rumors might have been true, as CEO Jim Farley confirmed that Ford was in talks with Tesla about self-driving during a talk at the Aspen Ideas Festival last week.

He said that he talked with Musk and admitted that both Waymo and Tesla have made progress toward self-driving, but he sees LIDAR, which Waymo uses but Tesla does not, as a critical part of self-driving.

Farley was directly asked what approach made more sense (via Fortune):

“To us, Waymo,” Farley said. He pointed out that both Waymo, owned by Google-parent Alphabet, and Tesla “have made a lot of progress” on self-driving, and Farley acknowledged that he has had conversations with Elon Musk. But he stated that Ford considered LiDAR to be an important part of the picture, noting that “where the camera will be completely blinded, the LiDAR system will see exactly what’s in front of you.”

Ford invested approximately $1 billion in Argo AI, a self-driving startup in partnership with Volkswagen. However, it ceased funding the company in 2022, and Argo AI was subsequently dissolved, with the two automakers integrating their technology.

After this setback, Ford said it would partner with self-driving companies once the technology is further developed.

Waymo has first been focused on developing its own vehicles for autonomous ride-hailing, while Tesla has been trying to bring consumer autonomous vehicles to market.

These different approaches have been reversing lately with Tesla launching a pilot program for its own autonomous ride-hailing fleet after years of failing making its consumer vehicles self-driving.

Meanwhile, Waymo has recently been securing deals with Toyota and Hyundai about integrating its self-driving technology into their consumer vehicles.

Electrek’s Take

Tesla shareholders have been hoping for those talks that Musk has been teasing for years to come to fruition, and have an automaker validate Tesla’s approach to self-driving.

It looks like it won’t be Ford and it looks like Ford might have been that “one major automaker” in discussion with Tesla.

As Farley put it, they want to take a careful approach to self-driving, and if that’s your goal, Tesla might not be the best partner.