Nissan is significantly reducing its design team.

      Nissan

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      Nissan’s Global Design Chief Alfonso Albaisa confirmed to Automotive News that the automaker will be shutting down its design studios in San Diego, CA, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, next year while also scaling back its design operations in Japan and the UK. He presented it as a move towards streamlining, although it sounds like a substantial retreat for a major car manufacturer.

      This year, Nissan’s financial issues and significant layoffs have been highlighted multiple times—the company has already announced factory closures and plans to cut a remarkable 20,000 jobs in the near future. This week, it was confirmed that members of the design team will be included in those job cuts.

      Automotive News reported that Nissan’s design office in Shanghai, China, has shown itself to be significantly more productive than its global counterparts. According to AN, paraphrasing Albaisa, “Employees there produce designs with a 30 to 40 percent reduction in hours compared to Nissan studios elsewhere.”

      Essentially, the company aims to achieve more with fewer resources. While reducing bureaucracy could indeed speed up car production, I remain somewhat doubtful that faster will equate to better—though what do I know? If AI can turn out millions of initial drafts in seconds, having a smaller team for car design seems logical.

      Nissan Design America (NDA) was established in 1979 as Nissan Design International. The Southern California office produced around 20 concept vehicles and 30 production models, including iconic ones like the Hardbody pickup.

      Once the changes are finalized with the closures of the San Diego and Sao Paulo studios expected by March 2026, Nissan's design operations will be centralized at its Global Design Center and Creative Box Studio in Japan, Studio Six in Los Angeles, Nissan Design Europe in London, and Nissan Design China in Shanghai.

      This all ties back to Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa's initiative to reduce the car development cycle from 52 months to 37 months and the next-generation cycle from 48 months to 30 months.

      From a consumer perspective, this suggests we can expect Nissan to incorporate trendy features into their models more swiftly. It appears that the upcoming Infiniti Q50 is the first vehicle designed under this new accelerated timeline. This car, which is reportedly coming with a twin-turbo engine and a manual(!) transmission, holds great promise for car enthusiasts, and I hope to see it succeed, or at least look striking.

      Despite many stories about Nissan’s corporate operations, including this one, having a somewhat gloomy tone, I must say the company is currently producing some attractive products. The new Z is stunning, the new Leaf represents a significant improvement over its predecessors, the current Frontier is my top pick for mid-sized pickups, and even the modest entry-level Kicks boasts an appealing design. Here’s hoping they can keep up the momentum with a more streamlined team.

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