Nissan Will Try To Pull Itself From A Deep Pit Of Mediocrity With Seven New Vehicles Including A New Truck

Nissan! As an automaker, it hasn’t particularly impressed anyone lately. Its one big move in the United States has been to make a relatively affordable, mostly acceptable crossover, the Rogue. Then it built too many of them and its dealers got mad. Now Nissan has a new plan to fix itself that involves cheap EVs, seven new models for the USA and Canada, and… a 1-ton pickup truck? What?

It was revealed in a lawsuit last week that automakers have been selling data on how you drive to third-party companies who then, in turn, sell it to insurers. This sucks, though anyone with a “connected car” I’m sure immediately engaged their shoulders in an unbaffled shrug as, of course, this was what was going to happen. At least one automaker sees that the negative press is not worth it.

Lucid, the electric car company known for its high-quality EVs, is continuing its side business of burning through billions of dollars from the coffers of Saudi Arabia. Lucky! And, finally, you’re less lucky if you’re a Stellantis engineer and got the boot last week as the company fired hundreds of engineers.

Happy Monday! It’s TMD time.

What’s Going On With Nissan?

You can definitely have too much of a good thing, but Nissan has gone out of its way to prove you can have too much of a mid thing. The Nissan Rogue is fine. It’s fine!

But it’s one of the few products that Nissan makes that is truly desirable, and it’s mostly desirable because of price, and Nissan has been building too many and dumping them on dealers and rental fleets, further driving down the value.

Now that Nissan has semi-handled its trial separation with Renault, the company is trying to fix its many many problems in the United States and globally. This plan is called “ARC” and you can download the whole presentation if you want, but the big things are: more and cheaper EVs, better manufacturing, a lot more cars.

Basically, Nissan is going to try to be a real car company again, for roughly the 12th time.

Here’s the key bit for us:

Americas:

• Increase across-region sales by 330,000 units (in fiscal year 2026 and compared to fiscal year 2023) and invest 200 million USD in integrated customer experience in the U.S.
• In the U.S. and Canada: Launch seven all-new models
• In the U.S.: Refresh 78% of passenger vehicle line-up for Nissan brand and launch e-POWER and plug-in hybrid models

The plug-in hybrids thing is great news, as is the seven all-new models. If you’re a beleaguered dealer, the increase in sales and investment in an “integrated customer experience” is also possibly music to your ears.

There’s also this:

What?

What is a “next gen 1-ton pickup produced in MEX” supposed to be? This is confusing, because in the United States a 1-ton pickup would be something along the lines of a Ford F-350 or a Silverado 3500. But a 1-ton truck in the metric world would be the Mitsubishi Triton, which isn’t sold here in the United States, but is sold in Mexico as the L200.

The American Nissan Frontier is related to the global Nissan Navara truck, which isn’t related to the old Mitsubishi L200 currently sold in Mexico, which is a pre-merger platform. The new Navara and Triton/L200 will be co-developed by Nissan and Mitsubishi.

After polling The Autopian Slack, my guess is that’s what this is and, while it’s certainly due for Mexico, it also makes sense as a replacement for the also-ran Nissan Frontier since it’s also Navara-based. Or, maybe, Mitsubishi and Nissan will revert to old habits and develop their own things? It’ll be fun to find out in a couple of years.

All of this is good news. We’ve been hard on Nissan lately, but the brand has historically made some beloved cars and has served the lower end of the market with increasingly not-bad cars. Mitsubishi, also, has quietly been selling a decent number of cheap PHEVs in the United States.

A reinvigorated Nissan with a mix of compelling hybrids and other vehicles is good for both enthusiasts and consumers.

GM To Stop Doing ‘Standard Rotten Thing’ By Cutting Ties With Data Firms: Expert

I worked on a mayoral campaign in Houston many years back for a City Councilman named Peter Brown (RIP). He was an architect and a Smart Car enthusiast.

It was a weird campaign and the candidate, via a staffer, had a connection with Houston area rapper Trae Tha Truth, who was hosting an annual school block party and supply drive called “Trae Day.” Our candidate went, and handed out school supplies, and that was that.

And then there was a shooting. Eight people were shot, though no one was seriously injured. This was an awful moment, though the Councilman had already left. And then Chamillionaire, best known for his song “Ridin’” tweeted this out:

Wow man. Just saw the news saying that Peter Brown who is running for Mayor was there. Not a good look…

— Chamillionaire (@chamillionaire) July 23, 2009

We were probably going to lose the campaign as the other candidates were stronger, but I’ll never forget how hard that “not a good look” from Chamillionaire hit. I think about “not a good look” at least once a week.

We wrote last week about how GM was sharing data with insurance companies via third-party data firms. This sucks and is also “not a good look.”

GM says it’s not doing it anymore, according to the Detroit Free Press:

On Friday, GM spokesman Kevin Kelly declined to comment on the lawsuit, but he sent the Detroit Free Press the following statement: “As of March 20th, OnStar Smart Driver customer data is no longer being shared with LexisNexis or Verisk. Customer trust is a priority for us, and we are actively evaluating our privacy processes and policies.”

Good on GM and I hope everyone else follows, but this isn’t just a GM problem as everyone does it, as a law professor pointed out in the same article:

He believes this case will be settled, but if it proceeds to trial and the plaintiff wins, “there will be a rash of lawsuits” against automakers and others.

[…]

“What GM is doing here is the standard rotten thing that most companies do and that the government should step in and protect us against,” said Gordon.

I love “standard rotten thing.” Maybe that’ll replace “not a good look” in my brain.

Lucid Takes More Saudi Money

Props to Lucid, I guess, for hooking up with the Saudi Public Investment Fund. It was probably inevitable that Saudi Arabia would try to diversify into EVs and by being that company, Lucid gets to smooth over the rough EV transition a bit by having access to billions in investment.

And now, according to Reuters, it’s getting a little more:

Ayar Third Investment Company, a PIF affiliate, will buy $1 billion in convertible preferred stock and will be able to convert the preferred stock into about 280 million shares, according to a regulatory filing with the U.S. securities regulator.

The California-based company, which has been facing weaker-than-expected demand, said it intends to use the proceeds for corporate purposes and capital expenditure among other things.

I hope “among other things” includes a new smoothie maker for the corporate offices. Those folks are working hard. They deserve a treat.

Stellantis Lays Of Hundreds Of Engineers, Allegedly Via Conference Call

It was announced last week that Stellantis was laying off about 400 employees in its engineering and software divisions, as the company tries to maximize profits while also investing in an EV future.

Here’s the Stellantis comment from The Detroit News:

“As the auto industry continues to face unprecedented uncertainties and heightened competitive pressures around the world, Stellantis continues to make the appropriate structural decisions across the enterprise to improve efficiency and optimize our cost structure,” a statement sent Friday by Stellantis spokesperson Jodi Tinson said.

The statement added those laid off would get a “comprehensive separation package and transition assistance.” A number of the affected employees were notified of the cuts Friday morning.

Happy Easter! But wait, there’s more:

It sounds like the company told everyone to do a “mandatory work day” and then attend a remote meeting, which was to announce that everyone on the call was getting laid off.

That’s the way they do it these days.

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

I had to get TMD done today but my parents were visiting and so I set my daughter and dad loose to build a Lego space rover. While this was going on, I heard my dad start to tell a story about delivering electric supplies to the Navy base in Corpus Christi, Texas on Fridays and seeing the great Tejano artist Freddy Fender waxing his ’57 Chevy on his big house on Ocean Drive. I loved that story and, for whatever reason, it really connected with my daughter. So here’s some Freddy Fender for you. Right in the feels.

The Big Question

Looking at Nissan-Mitsubishi’s global footprint, what would you like to see here in the United States? What are the 7 new vehicles that make sense?