Nissan revealed on Tuesday that it will shut down its design studios in California and São Paulo while reducing its operations in the UK and Japan as part of efforts to streamline its global design operations.
The restructuring is aligned with the automaker’s ‘Re:Nissan’ strategy, which aims to build a more agile and tech-driven organization ready for future challenges. Nissan will phase out the activities of Nissan Design America (NDA) and Nissan Design Latin America (NDLA).
Nissan stated that its Atsugi facility in Japan will become the central hub for global design. Studio Six in Los Angeles will become the main design center for Nissan and Infiniti in the U.S. The London studio will maintain its support for the Africa, Middle East, India, Europe, and Oceania (AMIEO) markets in partnership with Renault. The Shanghai studio will continue to focus on vehicles for the Chinese market, and Creative Box in Tokyo will remain dedicated to experiential and lifestyle design initiatives.
While Nissan has not revealed the exact number of design-related job reductions, CEO Ivan Espinosa confirmed that the wider restructuring effort will result in 20,000 job losses globally. As part of the plan, the company intends to streamline its global design operations into five agile hubs by March 2026 to enable faster decision-making, strengthen collaboration, and create a more adaptive design process.
In May, Ivan Espinosa introduced the Re:Nissan turnaround plan aimed at restoring profitability. The plan includes reducing global production capacity from 3.5 million to 2.5 million vehicles and cutting the number of manufacturing sites from 17 to 10 by fiscal year 2027.
Nissan reported a slight year-on-year increase in global vehicle sales for July 2025, selling a total of 262,745 units across both Nissan and Infiniti brands.
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