TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Nissan Motor Co. said Tuesday it has appointed Chief Planning Officer Ivan Espinosa as CEO, replacing Makoto Uchida, as the ailing automaker seeks to revive its business under new leadership after the collapse of merger talks with Honda Motor Co.

Espinosa, who has primarily worked in product planning at Nissan in regions including Southeast Asia as well as Central and South America, will assume the top role on April 1, while Uchida, 58, will remain a director until a June shareholders' meeting.

Espinosa, 46, will need to swiftly map out strategies to revive the company after its corporate performance sharply deteriorated due largely to sluggish sales in its major markets, the United States and China.

Criticism has been mounting of Uchida since Nissan's profit plummeted more than 90 percent in the nine months through December. The firm recently ended merger talks with Honda, which would have created the world's third-biggest auto group.

Speaking at an online press conference on Tuesday, Espinosa pledged to steer the carmaker back onto a growth path, saying, "I sincerely believe that Nissan has so much more potential than what we are seeing today."

Despite escalating speculation that Nissan's new leadership is considering resuming merger negotiations with Honda, Espinosa declined to comment on the issue.

Uchida, meanwhile, acknowledged his responsibility for failing to revive Nissan, saying at the news conference that he had been "unable to gain the confidence of some of our employees" and that "making a fresh start will be in the best interests of Nissan."

Nissan's vice presidents in charge of production and technological development will also step down.

Under the initial plan unveiled in December, Nissan and Honda said they would merge under a holding company in 2026, aiming to cut costs for developing electric vehicles and software amid the rise of global rivals like U.S.-based Tesla Inc. and China's BYD Co.

But the talks collapsed in February when it came to light that Honda had proposed making Nissan its subsidiary out of concern that the firm had made little progress in its turnaround, a key premise for the planned integration.

Nissan decided to terminate the negotiations as the Yokohama-based company believed its autonomy could not be preserved under such an arrangement, Uchida said.

In November, Nissan unveiled a plan to shed 9,000 jobs and reduce its global output by 20 percent as part of restructuring efforts.

Many analysts, however, say Nissan cannot survive on its own, and that it may need to form a partnership with other firms such as Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn, formally Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

Espinosa joined Nissan in Mexico in 2003 as a product specialist having previously worked at an automotive research company.

Uchida, who became CEO in 2019, attempted to rebalance Nissan's decades-old alliance with French automaker Renault SA, agreeing to equalize their stakes to enhance the Japanese manufacturer's autonomy, but he failed to strengthen its global competitiveness.

In the United States, the lack of hybrid vehicles in its lineup is one reason for Nissan's flagging business as demand for gasoline-electric cars is robust there. The firm's reluctance to introduce new models has also hampered its growth in China.