TOKYO—The head of Nissan Motor Co.’s operations in North America has a clear objective: move ahead of rival Honda Motor Co. as the No. 2 Japanese automotive brand in the U.S. market.

Nissan, whose U.S. sales in November grew 19 percent, aims to surpass rival Honda as the No. 2 Japanese brand in America, reported The Wall Street Journal.

“I can’t see any excuse for not overtaking Honda in the U.S. market,” Nissan Executive Vice President Colin Dodge said in an interview earlier this week.

Noting that Nissan outsells Honda everywhere the two brands compete globally except the U.S. and Thailand, Mr. Dodge said targeting his Japanese rival is crucial to Nissan’s quest to boost its U.S. market share to 10 percent from the current 8 percent.

“I find it unthinkable that Nissan won’t be at 10 percent of the market,” he said. “It’s just a matter of when.”

Honda’s U.S. market share has fallen to 9.1 percent so far this year, compared with 10.6 percent at this time last year. Toyota Motor Corp. is the leading Japanese auto brand in the U.S., with 12.6 percent of the market.

As it is for Honda, the U.S. is a key market for Nissan and second only to China globally. Nissan’s sales in the U.S. rose 18 percent to 908,570 vehicles last year, compared with a 7 percent U.S. sales gain by Honda to 1.2 million vehicles. Nissan said Thursday that its U.S. sales in November increased 19 percent from a year earlier to 85,182 autos amid strong demand for the company’s Rouge compact sport-utility vehicle and Frontier pickup truck.

Nissan has high hopes for growth in the compact segment that Honda dominates in the U.S. with its Civic model. The latest generation of that Honda vehicle has received negative reviews for poor handling and substandard quality, prompting questions about whether the Civic will remain the top-selling compact in the U.S.

Honda President Takanobu Ito acknowledged the cool reception for the new Civic on Tuesday, telling reporters in Tokyo that he took personal responsibility for the problematic launch. “There are mixed opinions of views about the Civic in the U.S. market,” Mr. Ito said. “I believe that ultimate responsibility rests with me.”

People familiar with Honda’s plans say it will likely pull forward a midcycle refresh of the Civic for the 2013 model year, which goes on sale next fall. Normally, such face-lifts don’t occur until two to three years after a launch.

The Civic’s problems signal opportunity for other compact vehicles, such as Ford Motor Co.’s Focus and Hyundai Motor Co.’s Elantra. Mr. Dodge said that Nissan also wants a larger slice of that market with its latest-generation compact, the Versa.

“Nissan’s never been represented in that segment with a market share or profit base up to our potential, so we are expecting a lot from our new Versa,” the British-born executive said.

Mr. Dodge added that he wants the car, which is made at a Nissan plant in Mexico, to grab 10 percent of the compact market “within two to three years,” up from the high single-digit percentages currently.

Nissan also plans to upgrade the engine in its Titan full-size pickup truck and seek to double that vehicle’s U.S. sales, he said.

In a sign of Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn’s confidence in Mr. Dodge, he is in charge of all regions globally except China and Japan. In June, the Nissan board member added North, South and Central America to his existing regional responsibilities for Africa, Europe, India and the Middle East.

Mr. Dodge, whose first automotive job was as a night-shift manager in the former Rover Cowley plant, joined Nissan in 1984 and spent the next 26 years at the company’s U.K. operations. In 2007, after leading the auto maker’s U.K. supply-chain management, he was named a global senior vice president in charge of emerging markets, including China.

In addition, CEO Ghosn named Mr. Dodge “chief recovery officer” amid the onset of the global financial crisis in 2009, a year when the company’s world-wide sales slid 9.4 percent. Mr. Dodge’s title was switched to global performance officer earlier this year after Nissan’s world-wide sales rebounded in 2010, rising 22 percent to 4.1 million vehicles.

“Ghosn takes the strategy and I try to relieve him of the grubby details of getting the job done on a daily basis. It seems to work quite well,” Mr. Dodge said.

Among the senior executive’s goals for the U.S. is an improvement in customer service and inventory control. He said that U.S. dealerships might be encouraged to use Apple Inc.’s iPads, something that Nissan has done successfully in Mexico.

Mr. Dodge wants to drastically cut the number of cars sitting in lots and in transit in the U.S. by “pushing” hotter products instead of waiting for orders to “pull” them to showrooms. Stockpiled inventories in Europe have been nearly eliminated for models such as the Qashqai, a crossover vehicle sold as the Rogue in the U.S., he said.

They “go straight from our factory to our dealers, as if they were still warm” from the assembly line, Mr. Dodge said, adding that the streamlining has improved free cash flow and improved relations with Nissan dealers.

If implemented in the U.S. and elsewhere, Mr. Dodge said the strategy could boost global operating profit as much as 1 percent. As part of Nissan’s midterm plan, the company has targeted raising its operating-profit margin to 8 percent by early 2017 from 6.1 percent in 2010.

Nissan Motor Co., Japan’s second- biggest automaker, raised its profit forecast as it recovered faster than Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. from the country’s record earthquake in March.

Net income will be 290 billion yen ($3.7 billion) in the year ending March 31, or 7.4 percent higher than its earlier forecast, the Yokohama-based company said in a statement today. Second-quarter profit exceeded analysts’ estimates.

Nissan raised its annual sales forecast after it sold more Sunny sedans in China, while Toyota and Honda delivered fewer cars globally last quarter. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn is now stepping up his efforts to expand in China as he seeks to boost Nissan’s share of the world’s biggest automobile market fivefold to 10 percent by 2016.

“Nissan’s management was very fast in responding to the disasters and that should be credited,” said Takeshi Miyao, an analyst at consulting firm Carnorama in Tokyo. “It wasn’t just luck.”

Nissan, the best-performing stock among Japan’s three biggest carmakers this year, fell 2.8 percent to 701 yen at the close of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, before the earnings announcement.

In the second quarter ended September, net income fell to 98.4 billion yen after the yen, the best performing major currency last quarter, eroded the value of overseas earnings. That beat the 82.5 billion yen average of eight analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg.

“In spite of unfavorable currency fluctuations, numerous natural disasters and a volatile global economy, we remain on track to deliver a significantly profitable full-year performance,” Ghosn said in a statement.

The full-year vehicle sales target was raised to 4.75 million units from an earlier forecast of 4.6 million. Gains will be led by China, where sales will rise 8.7 percent, followed by 6 percent expansion in Europe and 4.9 percent growth in Japan, Nissan said. Vehicle sales rose 11 percent to 1.17 million units in the second quarter, it said.

The results are a contrast to those at domestic rivals. Mazda Motor Corp. today cut its forecasts, predicting its fourth consecutive annual loss. Honda Motor Co. this week scrapped its earnings projections, saying the company can’t yet assess the financial toll from Thailand’s worst floods in almost 70 years.

The Thai floods exacerbated Japanese carmakers’ struggle to recover from a year in which they’ve had to cope with a record earthquake in Japan in March and contend with a yen trading near its highest levels in more than 60 years. Yuuki Sakurai, president at Fukoku Capital Management in Tokyo, said this week he expects Toyota to cut its full-year profit forecast on the floods.

Nissan, targeting 8 percent of China’s luxury car market, is stepping up efforts to expand in the world’s largest car market. It said earlier today it plans to open a new global headquarters for the Infiniti luxury brand in Hong Kong in April.

Still, China accounts for a greater portion of Nissan’s revenue than at Toyota or Honda, meaning the maker of the Teana sedan is more vulnerable to slowing growth in the country, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Kohei Takahashi wrote in a report last month.

China’s auto manufacturing association has cut its 2011 industry sales forecast twice in the past three months. Vehicle sales will increase 3 percent to 5 percent this year, from 32 percent last year, according to the nation’s auto manufacturing association last week.

TOKYO — Nissan Motor Co. said Wednesday its net profit for the July-September quarter slipped 4.3 percent from a year earlier, but the automaker raised its earnings outlook for the full-year on projections of higher sales.

Japan’s second-biggest vehicle manufacturer seems to be weathering the strong yen and tsunami disaster better than some its rivals, including Honda and Mazda, according to The Detroit News.

“In spite of unfavorable currency fluctuations, numerous natural disasters and a volatile global economy, we remain on track to deliver a significantly profitable full-year performance,” CEO Carlos Ghosn said in a press release.

Sales are growing in Europe, China and the U.S., said the maker of the March subcompact and Leaf electric car.

Nissan, which is allied with Renault SA of France, raised its forecast for the full-year through March 2012 to 290 billion yen ($3.63 billion) from the 270 billion yen projected in June. Still, that would represent a 9 percent fall from profit of 319.2 billion yen in the previous year.

It projects annual sales will grow to 9.45 trillion yen from an earlier forecast of 9.4 trillion yen.

It also raised its unit sales forecast 3.3 percent to 4.75 million vehicles for the fiscal year. Sales projections for China — 1.25 million units — are nearly as high as the forecast for North America, at 1.35 million.

Nissan’s quarterly net profit declined to 98.4 billion yen ($1.26 billion) from 101.73 billion yen last year, while half-year profit slid 12 percent to 183.4 billion yen ($2.3 billion) as sales rose 1.1 percent to 4.367 trillion yen ($54.73 billion).

During the first half of the fiscal year, sales in China rose 18.2 percent to 595,000 vehicles, claiming about 7 percent of the market there.

In other regions, sales in Europe increased 22.6 percent to 339,000 vehicles, and those in North America grew 10.8 percent to 642,000. Sales in Japan declined 14 percent to 283,000 vehicles.

Nissan is also doing well in emerging markets such as Thailand and Indonesia. Sales in Brazil increased 88.2 percent to 29,300 vehicles. The company said it is investing $1.5 billion to build a factory in Resende, Rio de Janeiro state, with a target completion date in the first half of 2014.

Nissan said it had sold 15,600 of the recently launched zero-emission Leaf electric car through September.

NASHVILLE – Nissan Division sales rose 17 percent in June as a mix of new and bread-and-butter products picked up steam. But the Infiniti brand was hobbled by inventory shortages resulting from the March Japanese earthquake and factory interruptions, falling 24 percent for the month.

Nissan North America Inc.’s total sales rose 11 percent to 71,940, reported Automotive News.

Nissan Division sales totaled 65,659 cars and trucks, up from 56,266 in June 2010.

Al Castignetti, vice president for Nissan sales, said he was disappointed by both Nissan’s results and that of the industry as a whole.

“I thought we should see a 20 percent increase,” he said. “We didn’t see the floor traffic we expected all month. I believe people are thinking that with the low inventories that are available they’re going to get gouged, and so they’re staying away.”

The big gainers included Altima, with a sales increase of 23 percent to 19,534 units. The aging compact Sentra rose 31 percent to 8,077.

Nissan officials continue to be pleasantly surprised by the Sentra’s performance as it nears a redesign.

Sentra outsold the less expensive Versa almost 2-to-1 in June, despite Nissan’s removing incentives from the Sentra due to reduced supplies. A year earlier, Nissan was selling more Versas than Sentras.

Nissan was crimped by other inventory issues in June. Three of the brand’s imported products turned in strong performances, including the electric Leaf sedan, which had 1,708 deliveries in June — 200 more than Nissan Motor Co. CEO Carlos Ghosn recently predicted.

Sales of the imported Rogue rose 8 percent to 7,493. Sales of the imported Juke, which was not on the market a year ago, totaled 2,031. Castignetti said the Juke was hurt by lean inventory. “That vehicle should be 3,000 to 5,000 sales a month,” he said. “We just didn’t have the availability this month.”

He said demand for the Rogue also exceeded June’s quake-reduced inventories.

But the situation was more visible at Infiniti, which sold 6,281 cars and trucks in June, down from 8,304 in June 2010.

Sales of the restyled M flagship declined 45 percent to just 653 because of supply problems, and sales of its volume-leading G series cars declined 26 percent. All Infiniti vehicles are imported from Japan.

Infiniti’s one bright spot for the month was the QX56 SUV. Sales rose 27 percent to 838 for the month.

A company spokeswoman said Infiniti’s supply problem should be alleviated soon with the arrival this month of 10,000 vehicles at a U.S. port.

Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn received 982 million yen or $11.46 million in total compensation last fiscal year, including salary and stock options, as the Japanese carmaker captured a record market share.

Ghosn, 57, who got a 10 percent increase in the year ended March, announced his compensation at Nissan’s annual shareholder meeting today. He is the highest-paid leader among Japanese companies that have disclosed executive compensation, according to Bloomberg data. He was followed by Sony Corp. Chairman Howard Stringer, who made about 863 million yen in salary, bonus and stock options, the electronics maker said yesterday.

Ghosn’s pay is lower than the average for global automotive companies, estimated at about $15.3 million by Towers Watson & Co., a U.S. benefits consultant. Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally earned the most in the industry with about $26.5 million in 2010. Publicly traded Japanese companies are required by financial regulations to disclose compensation for executives who earn more than 100 million yen.

“Western companies see the need to provide higher incentives to top management than Japanese companies do,” said Takeshi Miyao, an analyst at consulting company Carnorama in Tokyo. “They understand that well-performing management leads to good earnings results and they maintain adequate pay to make sure top managers don’t leave for another company.”

Nissan shares rose 2.7 percent to 847 yen at the 3 p.m. close in Tokyo, the highest since March 4.

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda was paid 136 million yen in the year ended March 31, including a 24 million yen bonus, according to a filing to Japan’s finance ministry last week. Honda Motor Co. President Takanobu Ito earned 130 million yen in the same period.

Toyoda’s pay wasn’t listed a year earlier, indicating he earned less than 100 million yen at the time. Ghosn was paid 891 million yen in the year earlier period.

Nissan’s senior vice president of marketing and sales in Europe, Simon Thomas, left this month to take a job at Volkswagen AG, Ghosn said in an interview.

“Nissan is obviously targeted not just by Japanese companies, but foreign companies going after talent,” Ghosn said.

For his role as CEO of Nissan’s alliance partner Renault SA, the executive was paid 1.2 million euros ($1.7 million) in 2010 after dropping claims to his bonus following a mishandled spying investigation.

Nissan, Japan’s second-largest automaker, boosted global vehicle sales 19 percent to 4.185 million in the year ended March 31 as China sales surged 36 percent and North American deliveries gained 17 percent. The carmaker’s global market share rose 0.3 percentage points to a record 5.8 percent.

Japanese automakers are recovering from the nation’s record earthquake on March 11, which disrupted auto production. Nissan expects to resume full output worldwide by October, the fastest recovery among the nation’s largest automakers.

Nissan said this month it would pay its top 14 executives and auditors an average of 126 million yen for the year ended March 31. Average pay for nine executives excluding corporate auditors rose 32 percent to 186.4 million yen, more than twice the levels at Toyota and Honda.

Nissan posted net income of 31 billion yen for the three months ended March as global vehicle sales rose 16 percent to 1.2 million. In the same period, Toyota’s profit fell to the lowest in 18 months to 25 billion yen as sales declined 12 percent.

Non-Japanese officials account for 44 percent, or 43 of the top 97 positions at Nissan, and four out of nine, or 44 percent, of its executive committee members, according to the automaker. The top 97 positions include Brazilian, Portuguese, British, French, Dutch, American, Indian, German, Italian, Spanish, Canadian and South African executives, Nissan said.

“There are no other automakers in the world that have this kind of diversity,” Ghosn said. “Because our executive team is so diverse, for compensation, we benchmark some of the similarly diversified companies, and the reason is simple: we compete against these companies for the same pool of multicultural, highly educated and highly mobile talent.”

Ghosn’s total compensation was 0.3 percent of Nissan’s net income for the year ended March 31, compared with an average of 1.4 percent for CEOs at S&P 500 companies, according to Equilar Inc., a Redwood City, California-based executive-pay researcher.

Carlos Ghosn, poised to make Nissan Motor Co. into Japan’s most profitable automaker for the first time since at least 1992, is returning to the type of bold pronouncement he was known for a decade ago.

“Nissan is unleashed,” Ghosn, 57, told reporters yesterday at company headquarters in Yokohama. “This is the first time we are launching a plan with no handicap. We are fully on the offensive.”

The chief executive officer, anticipating higher global production, had Nissan stocking electrical components before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. That positioned it to recover faster than Toyota Motor Corp. or Honda Motor Co. In North America, Japan’s second-biggest carmaker lost a week of output while the other two have yet to resume full production.

Nissan now targets operating income of 460 billion yen ($5.7 billion) in the year ending March 2012, while Toyota expects 300 billion yen and Honda estimates 200 billion yen. That would be the first time Nissan beat its two biggest competitors, according to Bloomberg data dating to 1992.

Ghosn this week announced a six-year mid-term plan aiming for 8 percent global market share and 8 percent operating margin. His enthusiasm recalls the days shortly after he was brought from biggest shareholder Renault SA to lead Nissan. In May 2000, just after Nissan’s biggest annual loss, Ghosn told Bloomberg News he would lead a return to profit by March 2001: “I am not optimistic. I am confident.” He met his goal.

The CEO has earned the right to brag, said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends at TrueCar.com in Santa Monica, California. “A little arrogance is good if it can be substantiated, and right now Nissan has confidence in the future,” Toprak said. “The math favors them this year.”

Nissan still faces challenges. While Ghosn is more bullish about Nissan’s outlook for the current fiscal year than Toyota and Honda, his operating income goal is still below the 537 billion yen posted in the year ended March 2011. Also, Toyota now expects full production of most models to resume by September, two months earlier than it first estimated, and is readying a new Camry sedan and Prius wagon late in the year to aid sagging U.S. sales.

Nissan estimates its global vehicle sales will rise 10 percent in the 12 months started April 1, compared with a 6 percent decline forecast by Honda and 0.9 percent drop at Toyota. Nissan’s U.S. sales in May fell 9.1 percent, compared with a 33 percent plunge at Toyota.

“Nissan has completely different momentum on sales,” said Koji Endo, an auto analyst at Advanced Research Japan in Tokyo.

Nissan had secured a greater supply of semiconductors before the quake than its Japanese rivals, preparing to increase production in anticipation of growing global demand, according to analysts at IHS Automotive and Advanced Research Japan.

Damage to chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp.’s plant in Ibaraki prefecture was a major cause of output disruptions for automakers in Japan.

“We were envisioning a very steep ramp-up in production in 2011,” Ghosn said. “We found ourselves with a larger inventory than some of our competitors.”

Honda was particularly hard-hit by the semiconductor shortage because it had ordered a new type of chip for its updated Civic, which went on sale in the U.S. in late April.

“There was a timing issue with our order,” Honda Chief Financial Officer Fumihiko Ike said yesterday.

Investors have noticed. Nissan has gained 1.1 percent in Tokyo trading since March 10, the day before the quake, compared with a 12 percent drop for Toyota and an 11 percent decline for Honda as of yesterday’s close. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average has lost 7.5 percent in the same period.

In the three months ending June 30, Nissan’s global sales will exceed the year-earlier level, Corporate Vice President Joji Tagawa said June 23. The company started hiring 200 temporary workers this month to help ramp up output. Toyota and Honda will begin adding workers in mid-July.

Investors should be mindful that Nissan’s method of accounting in China inflates the company’s operating profit, Endo said.

In China, Nissan’s profit from its 50-50 joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Group Co. is reflected in operating income through a method known as “proportional consolidation,” in contrast to the equity method, which reflects the venture’s profit at the net income level.

Toyota and Honda use the equity method under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, unlike Nissan, which reports under Japanese accounting rules.

Nissan’s six-year mid-term plan announced earlier this week included a target to more than triple sales of Infiniti luxury models to 500,000 vehicles, or about 10 percent of the global luxury-car market. Nissan plans to add Infiniti production in the U.S. or China, Ghosn said in an interview.

The company will benefit from cooperation with Daimler AG, which plans to share its platform with Infiniti, said Masatoshi Nishimoto, an analyst at IHS Automotive.

Nissan is also introducing compact cars based on its “V- Platform” in markets including India, China, Brazil, Thailand and Mexico. “That is the most important platform for emerging markets for us,” Ghosn told reporters yesterday.

With these compact cars and growth in luxury models, “Nissan has very well-balanced growth ahead,” Nishimoto said.

Nissan is also benefiting from a higher percentage of overseas production, which softened the impact of output disruptions in Japan, said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Co. in Tokyo.

The carmaker began producing the March compact in Thailand last year, helping limit its drop in Japan sales to 16 percent in May, compared with a 57 percent plunge at Toyota and a 35 percent decline at Honda.

Nissan’s profit forecast beats its rivals even with the most conservative forecast on materials prices among the top carmakers, thanks to a strong production growth plan, said Kurt Sanger, an auto analyst at Deutsche Securities Inc. in Tokyo.

“Nissan will meet those estimates; they may even beat them,” Atlantis’s Merner said. “A lot depends on the yen and the world economy.”

The yen advanced 15 percent against the U.S. dollar last year and reached a postwar record of 76.25 on March 17, eroding Japanese carmakers’ repatriated earnings from overseas sales. Nissan is basing this year’s profit forecast on an exchange rate of 80 yen to the dollar and 115 yen to the euro.