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Nissan‘s Global Design Chief Alfonso Albaisa confirmed to Automotive News that the automaker is closing its design studios in San Diego, CA, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, next year while scaling back design operations in Japan and the UK. He spun it as streamlining, but it sounds like a pretty drastic circling-the-wagons situation for a major car company.
Nissan’s financial troubles and large-scale layoffs have been discussed a few times this year—the company’s already confirmed that it’s closing factories and reducing headcount by a whopping 20,000 employees in the very near future. This week, it’s been confirmed that people on the design team will be part of those departures.
Automotive News reports that Nissan’s Chinese design office in Shanghai has proven itself to be considerably more productive than its counterparts around the world. “Employees there churn out designs with a 30 to 40 percent reduction in hours, compared with Nissan studios elsewhere in the world,” AN wrote, paraphrasing Albaisa.
In other words, the company’s looking to do more with less. On the one hand, less bureaucracy could indeed yield quicker car production. I personally am somewhat skeptical that quicker will mean better, but what the hell do I know? I guess if AI can do a million first drafts in seconds, having fewer people involved with car design makes sense.
Nissan Design America (NDA) opened in 1979 as Nissan Design International. The SoCal office churned out about 20 concept vehicles and 30 production models, including some icons like the Hardbody pickup. Nissan
When the dust settles, and Nissan’s San Diego and Sao Paulo shops are supposed to be closed by March 2026, the automaker’s design ops will be run out of its Global Design Center and Creative Box Studio in Japan, Studio Six in Los Angeles, Nissan Design Europe in London, and, of course, Nissan Design China in Shanghai.
It all comes back to Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa‘s plan to bring the brand’s car development cycle from 52 months to 37 months, and its next-gen cycle from 48 months to 30 months.
From our perspective as consumers, that means we should expect Nissan to incorporate trendy features into models more quickly. Apparently, the upcoming Infiniti Q50 is the first vehicle that’s been drawn up on this new compressed timeline. That car, which is supposedly shipping with a twin-turbo engine and manual(!) transmission, has a lot of promise for us car dorks, so I would love to see it succeed. Or at least, look really cool.
While many stories about Nissan’s corporate operations, including this one, have trended a little depressing, I have to say that the company’s putting out some compelling products right now. The new Z is gorgeous, the new Leaf is a huge upgrade from its predecessors, the current Frontier is my favorite mid-sized pickup on the market, and even the humble entry-level Kicks has an appealing design. Here’s hoping they can maintain momentum with a leaner crew.
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Automotive journalist since 2013, Andrew primarily coordinates features, sponsored content, and multi-departmental initiatives at The Drive.
