Nissan to shut Russia business, stares at loss of nearly $687 million

Nissan Motor Co. joined Toyota Motor Corp. in deciding to completely pull out of Russia, an exit that will cost Japan’s second-largest automaker roughly ¥100 billion ($687 million).

Shares of Nissan’s local manufacturing subsidiary will transfer to a state-run automobile research institute known as NAMI for one euro, the manufacturer said in a statement late Tuesday. The one-time loss is a forecast based on the current exchange rate and could change.

Nissan and Toyota both suspended operations at their plants in Saint Petersburg in March shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. The two have concluded in the span of a few weeks that there’s no path to restarting production anytime soon in a market the industry once viewed as a promising source of growth.

Renault SA sold its €2.2 billion ($2.1 billion) Russian business to NAMI for a token sum earlier this year. The decision by its partner to follow suit will cost the French company another €331 million, according to a statement.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the third leg of the auto industry’s largest formal alliance, is also considering an exit, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported Tuesday. The company stopped production at its Kaluga plant in April.