It’s official: Nissan’s CEO is on the way out. The brand has sealed the fate of its COVID-era chief and plans to replace him with someone who is focused on products, which, honestly, could be a great move if the new “car guy” appointee can pull off what seems like the impossible.
Welcome back to Critical Materials, your daily roundup for all things electric and tech in the automotive space. Nissan has a new CEO today, and in other news, we’re talking about the smart things in (and on) your car that drive you nuts. Plus, Polestar is about to lean more on Volvo’s U.S. dealer network.
Let’s jump in.
30%: Nissan Is Replacing Its CEO With A ‘Real Car Guy’
Photo by: Nissan
Nissan has been churning through CEOs like a rental fleet chews through base-trim Nissan Altimas.
On Tuesday, Nissan’s CEO, Makoto Uchida, announced that he would step down on April 1st, making him the third CEO to depart Nissan in just six years. According to sources speaking with Reuters, Uchida’s position had become “untenable” prior to the official announcement.
Given the company’s continued death spiral (plus a failed merger with Honda and Foxconn at its doorstep), Uchida’s fate was already sealed and the writing for his departure was on the walls—Tuesday’s announcement was just a formality.
Photo by: Nissan
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida.
Nissan’s answer to Uchida’s replacement? Ivan Espinosa, the company’s Chief Planning Officer previously in charge of the brand’s strategy. Or, as Uchida himself puts it, a “real car guy.” Espinosa is an interesting choice for several reasons: for one, he’s a foreigner, a native of Mexico whose 20-year career with Nissan has spanned tour of duties there and in Europe, Southeast Asia and Japan. And at just 46, he’s quite young for the global CEO job.
Also interesting is the fact that Espinosa has spent quite a bit of time at the brand’s NISMO unit. For those unfamiliar, that’s Nissan’s performance and motorsports division, which hopefully means that he’s likely a true product guy and not some bean-counter who could work in any industry.
That’s important because Nissan’s lineup isn’t exactly as new and shiny as it once was. Nissan missed the first wave of hybrids in the U.S. and has struggled to stay competitive in global markets like China that are chocked-full of EVs. If Espinosa doesn’t want Nissan to continue to get eaten alive by competitors, he’ll need to make some swift decisions about the direction of the company around the world—and that’s exactly what he said that he would do.
Espinosa says that “reinforcing [Nissan’s] lineup” will be his immediate priority and the ultimate goal will be to restore stability and growth at the automaker. The real question is whether or not Nissan can do that on its own.
“I’ve just been informed of this appointment, so I need some time to reflect,” said Espinosa when asked whether or not he planned to restart talks with Honda or pursue other partnerships. He later continued: “I’m really excited to continue Uchida-san’s work to help Nissan shine again. I sincerely believe that Nissan has so much more potential than what we are seeing today.”
We’ve heard these promises from Nissan’s leadership before, though. Uchida was supposed to be the appointment that stabilized Nissan in a post-Ghosn era but was met with some rather tough circumstances (like Covid) that made a hard task almost impossible. Even after the pandemic, sales continued to decline, profit targets were missed, and the one merger that could save the company a world of headaches? That failed to happen because of the company’s hubris.
The board is now backing on Espinosa’s credentials to steer the company back on track. If he can deliver exciting, competitive cars while keeping Nissan’s head above water, maybe the company can find its way to shore.
But if the financial mess continues and Nissan either can’t do it on its own or find a strong partner to help, Espinosa might not just be another crossed-off name on Nissan’s long list of CEOs—it could be one of the last.
No pressure though.
60%: Too Much Tech Is Driving Drivers Nuts
Photo by: Mercedes-Benz
Automakers love to cram as much tech as possible into their cars. I’ll be the first to admit that I love my daily driver to be packed full of convenience, a great sound system, and premium tech. But it appears that I’m in the minority, because, and here’s the thing: it turns out that most drivers kind of hate it.
A new survey by Strategic Vision shows that—despite the industry being obsessed with giant touch screens, AI-powered voice assistance and more sensors than an interplanetary space probe—drivers are becoming increasingly frustrated with their high-tech cars.
At the top of the complaint list is a fairly functional one: door handles. It turns out that we’ve managed to make door handles complicated despite having one real function. It’s such a big deal that we even wrote an entire guide dedicated to breaking out of your own car if the electronic door handles fail. Getting in the car can be just as difficult (or a safety risk) with frozen-over handles, capacitive touch buttons that aren’t responsive, or self-presenting door handles that don’t care how many bags you’re carrying as you approach.
Here’s The Wall Street Journal’s account of one driver’s door issues:
In January, Vincent Dufault-Bédard tried and failed to remotely start charging his 2024 Volkswagen ID.4 electric car using its phone app. The 36-year-old engineer in Montreal scurried out into the 15° night in shorts and flip-flops, thinking he would be back indoors quickly.
But the car doors wouldn’t open because their sensor-equipped handles were on the fritz in the cold. He ended up having to shimmy into his car through the trunk.
“Just give me a normal door handle,” said Dufault-Bédard.
“We’ve changed door handles from being a problem-free experience to now, they pop out when the owner approaches, and we’re seeing all these problems,” said J.D. Power director Kathleen Rizk.
Other problem areas include voice controls (which are still terrible, by the way), capacitive-touch buttons, as well as over-complicated and “annoying” touch screens. Drivers also say that they don’t really care about Head-Up displays with augmented reality, passenger-side displays, or ambient lighting. Oh, and don’t get them started on gesture-based controls (looking at you, BMW).
In fact, drivers surveyed on the “intuitiveness” of their new car’s controls have been increasingly dissatisfied since 2015—falling from 79% to 56% satisfaction last year.
That being said, while some of these complaints seem to be more of an old-man-yells-at-clouds problem than actually being an issue, there’s some data to back it all up. In 2024, BEV owners reported 3.1 issues per 100 vehicles specifically about the door handles versus just 0.2 in 2020 according to J.D. Power. Now imagine adding on all of the other sensors and systems required to run other tech-based features (plus the learning curve) and you’ll start to see why people are getting annoyed.
All of that tech also drives up the price of a new car. A J.D. Power study referenced by the WSJ suggests that a feature-heavy car could see a monthly lease payment increase as high as $50 to account for in-car tech depreciation. And then comes repairs and potentially even higher insurance costs.
So what’s the answer here? Honestly, it’s hard—and I’ll ask you more about it in the QOTD below. But just know that there isn’t a one-answer-fits-all, because we all want different things out of our cars. Some want their cars packed with screens and RGB lighting, and others? Well, they could care less (or perhaps even prefer) if interiors revisited the 1990s.
90%: Polestar Taps U.S. Volvo Dealer Network To Prop-Up Sales
Photo by: Polestar
I’ve said it before, but Polestar has a Volvo problem…or, maybe Volvo has a Polestar problem. However you spin it, there’s an identity crisis going on in the halls of the Scandinavian automakers and that’s led to some rather lackluster sales across the Polestar brand.
Never fear, though, because Polestar’s new CEO Michael Lohscheller has the answer. Starting this month, Polestar will begin transitioning away from a purely online sales channel in the U.S to focus more heavily on in-person sales. Lohscheller told us about this in a recent interview.
And rather than build out its own dealership network, Polestar plans to tap the existing Volvo network on the shoulder to borrow some showroom space.
“Our goal of growing by 30 to 35% annually from 2024 to 2027 cannot be achieved with online sales alone,” said Lohscheller at Automobilwoche, an event held in Munich, Germany at the end of February.
Currently, Polestar utilizes small showrooms called “spaces” around the world. These Spaces, at least in the U.S., are similar to Tesla showrooms. People can check out Polestar models and ask questions, but to actually buy the car, customers must complete the process online. This helps to promote the direct-to-consumer sales model but has conversely made it difficult for Polestar to sell its cars.
In his interview with InsideEVs in February, Lohscheller said that he sees “a much higher importance of dealers in general going forward.” The grand reveal of rolling into Volvo’s dealer network came after but is definitely in the same direction that the CEO was pointing in during his interview.
Polestar operates 31 of its 36 Spaces in North America—it plans to grow that to 57 by the end of 2025. It’s unclear if this will be through the use of Volvo’s dealer network, though with just over 280 dealers in the U.S., it would make sense to utilize the Volvo dealer network rather than tie up additional capital in separate real estate.
Polestar exists in this quasi-premium limbo where it isn’t quite Volvo, but the easiest way to describe it to someone who isn’t familiar with the brand is, “Well, it’s kind of just like Volvo, but not really.” The move to roll back into Volvo dealers really makes you question just why Volvo broke Polestar away from its main brand in the first place, and if it should perhaps take this as a sign to fold back into Volvo while there’s an opportunity.
Or, maybe Lohscheller has something up his sleeve that will make Polestar distinct and still allow the U.S. to get a glimpse back to the days when Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealers had all of its brands under one roof. Only time will tell, but Polestar needs a win and it needs it soon.
100%: What’s Your Ideal Amount Of In-Car Tech?
Photo by: Skoda
Drivers are tired of expensive, unreliable and hard-to-learn technology popping up in their new cars. Driver satisfaction rate has dropped, the coveted problems-per-100-vehicles figure has soared in recent years, and some automakers are even reverting back to low-tech buttons.
With all the talk about how much is too much when it comes to in-car tech, I need to know your thoughts. Let me know where you draw your limit (or what piece of in-car tech you absolutely can’t stand) in the comments.
