Japanese automaker Nissan has been dealing with significant financial problems for the past couple of years since the ousting of now-former CEO Carlos Ghosn. We've previously reported some of the extreme measures that have been taken, among them a significant refocus on the North American market at the expense of others, specifically Europe.

The upcoming Nissan 400Z, for example, won't be sold in Europe and, next summer, the NV Cargo, Passenger, and NV200 vans will all be dropped from the US lineup. The goal is to concentrate on core products, specifically the all-new Rogue and Sentra. Other cost-cutting and often painful measures were previously enacted several months ago and now they're beginning to bear fruit.

According to Reuters, Nissan's restructuring efforts and overall sales are going better than expected. Operating loss is projected to be $3.2 billion this year, a figure originally predicted to be around $4.5 billion. For the third business quarter of this year, Nissan has just reported a $45 million operating loss compared to a $285 million the same time last year.

Still, things are heading in the right direction as it continues to cut production and its overall vehicle lineup by a fifth. This will hopefully result in cutting costs by $2.9 billion over three years. "We are confident we are on track," said Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta. Nissan is in a better situation than it was not long ago but its pandemic recovery is moving slower than that of its rivals. One reason for this remains Nissan's still mostly dated product lineup and its previous profit reliance on fleet sales.

But the momentum towards profit is still there. This past July through September, Nissan sold 390,000 vehicles in China, the world's largest auto market. That's a 4 percent increase from the same period last year. China is currently doing well because its pandemic recovery is happening faster than in North America where the recovery has been slower. Compared to the second quarter of 2020; they were up by 35.1 percent quarter-on-quarter for a total of 300,000 vehicles.

To help speed up this up, Nissan is quickly shifting gears towards a greater focus on online sales. Hopefully by this time next year, Nissan's problems will be mostly resolved with a return to profitability.