Nissan’s planned job cuts not related to potential Trump tariffs, company says

After President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, some social media users tied planned job cuts by Japanese automaker Nissan to Trump’s tariff threats on imported vehicles.

At a Nov. 4 rally in North Carolina, Trump threatened to impose tariffs of 25% to 100% on Mexican imports if it didn’t stop the "onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country." Two days after Trump’s win, Nissan — which, like other major automakers, produces some of its vehicles in Mexico — announced it planned to cut jobs and reduce global production.

"Nissan just announced 9000 layoffs in Tennessee to avoid severe losses due to expected tariffs. Experts expect more," a Nov. 13 Threads post said.

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On Nov. 7, Nissan did announce 9,000 job cuts, but they’re not due to potential tariffs. 

"The announcement last week of a potential global headcount reduction had nothing to do with any proposed actions by the incoming administration," Nissan U.S. Corporate Communications Director Kyle Bazemore told PolitiFact in an email.

(Screenshot from Threads)

The company announced the layoffs when reporting first-half financial results for fiscal year 2024. A news release said to reduce costs by $2.6 billion, "Nissan will cut global production capacity by 20% and reduce its global workforce by 9,000."

The move comes after Nissan saw a drop in net revenue of 79.1 billion yen, or about $509 million. The company called it a "severe situation" and said CEO Makoto Uchida will take a 50% pay cut, in addition to the job and production cuts.

Nissan has been struggling, in part, because it doesn’t have an offering in the surging U.S. gasoline-electric hybrid market, Uchida said. 

The news release did not mention possible tariffs as a factor, nor did company executives attribute them to tariffs in a Nov. 7 news conference. 

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Uchida did respond to a question about the effect of possible Trump-imposed tariffs. "Not only us, but many carmakers are using Mexican production, so we would like to do a lot of lobbying efforts," he said. He said the company exported 300,000 models from Mexico to the U.S. this fiscal year and that the company would "monitor carefully" what is happening with tariffs.

Nikkei, a Japan-based financial news outlet, reported that Japanese automakers are preparing to spend more on lobbying in the U.S. with Trump in charge. Nissan, Honda and Toyota together spent 25% more on lobbying in Trump’s first term, compared with former President Barack Obama’s last term.

William Reinsch, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ economics program, said a massive layoff would be premature because Trump hasn’t taken office and tariffs have not taken effect.

"Trump has proven himself unpredictable, so it is hard to say what he might actually do once in office, but I don’t think it’s realistic to assume Nissan initiated a layoff that size purely on speculation about possible tariffs," Reinsch said.

Neither the news release nor Nissan executives have specified where the 9,000 cuts to global headcount would come from.

Bazemore also did not specify if the layoffs would affect workers in Tennessee, home to Nissan’s North American headquarters. Nissan has two production sites in the state. A Smyrna plant makes the Nissan Maxima, Leaf, Pathfinder, Rogue, Murano and the Infiniti QX60, Nissan’s website said. Another plant in Decherd produces engine parts.

Bazemore said the U.S. is a priority market for Nissan, and "we expect an increase in sales from all-new models, including the Nissan Kicks, Murano, Armada and Infiniti QX80."

While Nissan’s Murano is produced in Tennessee, the Kicks subcompact SUV is manufactured in Mexico, and the Armada and QX80 are produced in Japan. 

Nissan also makes the Sentra and Versa in Mexico, where it produced more than 615,000 light vehicles in 2023. It exported about 367,000 of those that year.

A Threads post claimed Nissan is planning 9,000 layoffs in Tennessee because of Trump’s proposed tariffs. 

A company spokesperson said the layoffs and production cuts announced two days after the U.S. election are not related to possible Trump policy. The company is cutting costs after a severe sales slump. It’s unclear where the job cuts would be made, but the company described them as global and not specific to Tennessee.

We rate the claim False.

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact-check.