Nissan Motor will cut more than 10,000 jobs globally, bringing the number of layoffs, including those previously announced, to about 20,000 or 15 per cent of its workforce, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported on Monday.

Japan’s third-biggest automaker is striving to make its business leaner and more resilient after weak sales in China and its biggest market, the United States.

CEO Ivan Espinosa, who took over from Makoto Uchida as chief executive last month, is restructuring Nissan’s operations and has previously said the company was considering extra measures.

Nissan, which had more than 133,000 staff as of March last year, announced plans last November to cut 9,000 jobs and reduce global capacity by 20 per cent.

It has also said it would close a plant in Thailand by June and shut two more plants that it has not identified.

On Friday, it said it had decided to give up a plan to build a $1.1 billion factory, for which it was set to receive government subsidies, for EV batteries on Japan’s southwestern island of Kyushu.

Its weak performance forced it to cut its profit outlook four times for the financial year that just ended.