Nissan sold 826,000 vehicles in the April-to-June period, down 6% on the same period last year.

Nissan’s operating profit was also down by 25.7% at 153.3 billion yen (£728m).

The decline was due in part to a one-time charge for a four-cylinder engine warranty provision in North America. Ordinary profit amounted to 156.7 billion yen (£744m), down 25.6%.

Net revenue rose 3.1% to 2.210 trillion yen (£10.5bn).

“As we predicted, the first half is proving to be challenging as we face significant headwinds and only one new model introduction,” said Nissan president and CEO Carlos Ghosn.

“We are maintaining our forecast for the full fiscal year and remain confident that our new product introductions will provide a significant contribution to our business in the second half of this fiscal year, and to the achievement of Nissan Value-Up,” he said.

In the second half of fiscal 2006, Nissan will release eight new models around the world, including the Sentra, Altima and Infiniti G35 sedans for the US.