Nissan desires Britain to pledge compensation for any tax barriers resulting from its choice to leave the European Union, or the Japanese automaker could ditch a prospective brand-new financial investment in the nation’s most significant vehicle plant, its CEO stated on Thursday.
Carlos Ghosn’s remarks show growing issue about global automakers that Britain could be heading to a so-called ‘hard Brexit’, which would leave them paying tariffs to export UK-assembled vehicles to EU markets.
Nissan, which develops around a third of Britain’s overall car output at its plant in Sunderland, northeast England, is due to choose early next year on where to develop its next Qashqai sport utility vehicle.
“If I need to make a financial investment in the next few months and I can’t wait up until end of Brexit, then I need to negotiate with the UK government,” Ghosn informed reporters at the Paris Motor Show.
“You can have commitments of compensation in case you have something unfavorable,” he stated. “If there are tax barriers being developed on automobiles, you need to have a commitment for automakers who export to Europe that there is some sort of compensation.”
Ghosn’s ultimatum echoes issues from other Japanese automaker Toyota which said the imposition of tasks as part of a Brexit offer would make running its English plant “very, very hard”.
Britain’s business ministry has not made any comments yet.
