How Nissan’s tariff strategy led growth

Tariffs have posed a serious challenge to major industries across the globe, and with an estimated cost of around $35 billion since last year, automakers suffered some of the biggest casualties.

Many have had to pivot to mitigate the impact on their top and bottom lines. Nissan, for one, put more focus on its American-manufactured models like the Rogue, Pathfinder, and Frontier, to not only skirt the challenges of tariffs, but to boost overall growth.

According to Q2 sales figures, Nissan’s US retail sales grew 8% YoY; the carmaker has also experienced 16 consecutive months of YoY retail sales growth.

“Momentum is building at Nissan,” said Tiago Castro, Nissan’s US SVP of marketing and sales. “We like to say Nissan is back—and it’s consistently back.”

Made in America

Alongside its Mexican-manufactured Kicks and Sentra models, Nissan’s American-built models—which accounted for over 60% of its retail sales volume in the first half of this year—have become the center of the company’s inventory strategy. According to Q2 sales figures, the Frontier saw retail sales grow by 37% YoY, the Rogue by 29% YoY, while the Pathfinder delivered the best-ever quarter total volume.

“We just went back to, ‘What do customers want?’” Castro said. “They like the V6 [engine]. They like the frame-based truck, and they love our quality. Well, let’s put that together in a message that’s delivering a package that customers understand [and] the dealers understand.”

According to Jim Johnson, VP account planning and head of automotive industry solutions at advertising company VDX.tv, Nissan refocusing on its US-built models was a key component of its recent success.

“They’ve navigated tariffs pretty deftly,” he said. “They’ve been able to adjust their lineup to what consumers are looking for now. They’ve kept their pricing relatively stable, whereas some other [original equipment manufacturers] have been forced to raise prices fairly significantly because of these tariffs. All of those things have led them to this brief turnaround that they’ve had so far.”

Retail network

Castro said Nissan’s retail strategy involves working closely with dealerships to identify customer needs and then dividing up inventory accordingly. He said his team and Nissan’s dealer advisory board does quarterly visits to locations to “set the tone and strategy.”

“We work very closely to our dealers and to our internal teams to continue to offer the value that these vehicles provide, without fully passing all the tariffs to consumers,” Castro said.

Alignment between the overall company and its dealerships helps Nissan stay informed on what their customers want and helps create unified messaging surrounding its most popular car models.

“The dealers represent the brand in front of consumers and providing them with the best tools possible to deliver the best job possible is our mission,” Castro said.