Nissan To Recall 2.56 Million Autos Worldwide

TOKYO October 30, 2003; Yoshio Takahashi writing for Dow Jones reported that Nissan Motor Co. plans to recall a total of 2.56 million vehicles sold in Japan and overseas due to faults in the engines, the automaker said Thursday.

The firm expects to book a Y15 billion-Y16 billion recall charge this fiscal year through March, but it has no plans to downgrade its earnings outlook for the current year, it said.

Nissan will recall about 1.03 million vehicles in Japan and 1.53 million vehicles sold in the U.S. and other countries.

Japan's ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said the number of vehicles Nissan plans to recall in Japan represents the country's second largest recall after the 1.04 million vehicles Nissan recalled in May 1996.

The automaker added that the recall is already factored in to its earnings forecast for this fiscal year through March.

In mid-October, Nissan said it expects a group net profit of Y495.0 billion for the full year, with an operating profit of Y820 billion and sales of Y7.450 trillion.

Nissan will recall 23 models, including the Sunny (sold overseas as the Sentra), the Skyline (sold overseas as the Infinity G35) and the Fairlady Z ( sold overseas as the 350Z).

Of the 1.53 million vehicles to be recalled overseas, Nissan will recall 700, 000 vehicles in the U.S., 460,000 in Europe and the remainder in other Asian countries, the Middle East and other regions.

Some of engines installed in these vehicles may not start properly due to problems with the sensors needed to count engine revolutions.

The sensor is made by Hitachi Unisia Ltd., an auto parts maker wholly owned by Hitachi Ltd. . Nissan adds the sensor to its engines during assembly.

The two companies will check whether the sensor problem was caused when they were produced by Hitachi Unisia or when the engines were assembled by Nissan.

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