Christian Meunier, who returned to lead Nissan’s Americas division last year, told The Wall Street Journal the automaker is beginning to see a turnaround after years of sliding U.S. sales and strained dealer relations. U.S. sales in May rose 12% year over year, he said.
“It’s not that the market is getting easier,” Meunier said in the interview. “It’s that, especially in the U.S., in the last, we say, 12 months, we’ve had a lot of momentum, and we’ve been growing significantly.”
Nissan still faces significant headwinds. The company is contending with a thin Infiniti lineup and overall sales are down 35% from a decade earlier. It also recently abandoned a merger with Honda.
Meunier said the company’s product strategy is shifting toward more U.S. production, particularly for gas-powered trucks and SUVs. He described a trend of “fragmentation” in global markets driven by tariffs and renegotiated trade agreements.
“I think it’s just the beginning,” Meunier said when asked if the car business is becoming more regional. He pointed to China as a major question mark and predicted Chinese manufacturers will “become more and more powerful” and “end up localizing.”
“Ultimately, ‘build where you sell’ is going to become more and more critical,” he said.
As part of that shift, Meunier said Nissan is bringing back the Xterra as a symbol of the brand’s roots. “When you have a strong DNA as a company, like Nissan had and has, it is really about durability, affordability, but also exciting products—fun to drive, fun design, and different, edgy products,” he said. He added that the Xterra will be part of a five-vehicle platform that includes a new Pathfinder, a new Frontier, and two Infiniti derivatives.
Meunier was blunt about the Infiniti brand, saying, “It’s criminal what happened to Infiniti. That brand was doing so well 10 years ago. They were really cool products, and the dealers were making a ton of money. Then, a lot of bad decisions.” He pointed to the QX65 launching now and a next-generation Q50 sedan with a manual transmission arriving next year. A QX50 SUV derived from the Rogue is planned for 2028.
On hybrids, Meunier acknowledged Nissan is behind. “We’re very late to the party. That’s clear,” he said. “I think it was pretty obvious that hybrid would become the new [internal combustion engine] car, and it’s happening right now.” The Rogue Hybrid e-Power, launching this summer, is expected to be a “big booster for Nissan performance in the U.S.”
Regarding fully electric vehicles, Meunier said they remain part of the future but not the only future. He noted that EVs accounted for 6% of total U.S. industry sales in May, half of which was Tesla, and said many other EVs are sold with “negative margins.” To be profitable, he said, “We need to be localized in the U.S. There’s no way you can make money bringing [an EV] from Japan.”
Nissan is planning two EVs, “probably SUVs,” to be built in the U.S., Meunier said, complementing its lineup of internal-combustion and hybrid vehicles.