Nissan, Facing Mounting Challenges, Replaces Its C.E.O.

Nissan Motor is tapping a new chief executive as it grapples with a growing list of setbacks, from sluggish sales to failed merger talks and looming tariff threats in the United States.

On Tuesday, the Japanese automaker announced that Makoto Uchida, its chief executive since 2019, would step down. Ivan Espinosa, 46, a Nissan veteran of two decades and the company’s chief planning officer, will take over as leader next month, the company said.

The move follows a tumultuous year for Nissan, putting the nearly century-old company into a leadership transition midway through a restructuring effort and at a time of heightened uncertainty for the industry.

Yasushi Kimura, the chair of Nissan’s board of directors, said in a news conference on Tuesday that it would be “a very challenging start” for Mr. Espinosa when he stepped into the top job on April 1. But “given the industrywide challenges and Nissan’s performance, we believe it is necessary and appropriate to change the top management team,” Mr. Kimura said.

Nissan’s current leader, Mr. Uchida, 58, took charge during another turbulent period, after the ouster of Carlos Ghosn, then Nissan’s chairman, on allegations of financial misconduct. Nissan was reeling from a sharp decline in profits, and its leadership was in disarray. Mr. Uchida stepped up after Mr. Ghosn’s immediate successor resigned over separate issues involving his pay.

Mr. Uchida, who ran Nissan’s China business before taking the helm of the group, overhauled its decades-old alliance with the French automaker Renault and embarked on a mission to boost profitability by scaling back incentives that had propped up sales during Mr. Ghosn’s tenure.