UK Edition
Nissan weighs selling Sunderland and Spanish plants
Nissan is weighing up a sale of its Sunderland plant in what would be a dramatic blow to the UK car industry.
The troubled Japanese car maker is understood to be gauging interest from potential buyers for factories in the UK and Spain. Nissan employs nearly 7,000 people in Sunderland.
The potential closure - first reported by Bloomberg - comes after the manufacturer announced earlier this month that it will end night shifts at its Sunderland plant and warned the factory would become untenable if the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
It is also looking at options for a site in Barcelona where 3,000 people work. The firm is seeking to cut 12,500 jobs worldwide.
Professor David Bailey, a car industry expert at Birmingham University, said: “With Nissan’s low profits, absolutely everything is being considered at the moment. Selling its European plants could definitely be an option.”
The Sunderland plant would be particularly vulnerable if tariffs were imposed between the UK and EU, according to Prof Bailey, due to the free trade agreement that Japan recently signed with the EU.
Nissan makes the all-electric Leaf car in Sunderland for export to elsewhere in Europe and the US.
Although the Leaf is the world’s best-selling electric car, it is still relatively low volume, meaning that production could be transferred to the company’s Japan plant and exported from there to the EU without facing levies.
In July, Nissan reported a collapse in profits, plunging 98pc to 1.6bn yen (£11.9m) as sales dwindled in the US and Europe. Earlier in the year it abandoned plans to make the X-Trail SUV in Sunderland.
Nissan could not be reached for comment.
The company is also continuing to deal with the fallout from the scandal surrounding ousted chairman Carlos Ghosn who faces charges of financial misconduct in Japan, which he denies.
Mr Ghosn accused Japanese prosecutors on Thursday of a conspiracy to oust him from Nissan.