Nissan’s latest outlook downgrade has shined a light on the Japanese carmaker’s tendency to overpromise and underdeliver, testing the trust of its investors and suppliers.
The manufacturer has failed to meet its initial annual unit sales target during eight of the past nine fiscal years, four of which had a gap of more than 10%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. For this fiscal year through March, it lowered an initial goal by 8.1% to 3.4 million vehicles.
Nissan’s propensity to promise too much is a habit it picked up when Carlos Ghosn was in charge, according to Tatsuo Yoshida, senior auto analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. By contrast, Toyota’s sales have never fallen short of forecasts by more than 10% during the same period, while Honda has seen drops of similar scale only twice. Six years have passed since Ghosn’s surprise exit, but Nissan hasn’t been able to escape his operational style, Yoshida said, much less build a new one.