Overview
- A shareholder proposal to bring Carlos Ghosn back to Nissan failed at the company’s recent annual meeting while the board and CEO Ivan Espinosa retained strong backing from most shareholders.
- Ghosn, speaking from Lebanon where he has lived since fleeing Japan, used the publicity to say investors are fed up and pointed to large declines in Nissan’s share price and global sales as evidence of management failure.
- Company leadership under Espinosa says the priority is to lift profit per vehicle and restore financial health, but visible anger at the meeting underscores ongoing investor impatience with the slow turnaround.
- Analysts note a key strategic debate between Ghosn’s past focus on high sales volumes and the current drive for higher margins, a choice that shapes pricing, production and brand positioning.
- Broader industry shifts to electric vehicles and competition from lower-cost Chinese automakers raise the risk that Nissan could lose scale or become subordinate to a larger group if it fails to stabilize performance.