Nissan has ditched plans to build its new X-Trail SUV in Britain and also will certainly produce it exclusively in Japan, warning two months prior to Brexit that unpredictability over Britain’s separation was making it more challenging to prepare for the future.
Decreasing demand for diesel cars in Europe has forced Nissan to spend on other technologies and save prices. It cut thousands of jobs at its Sunderland factory in the north of England, Britain’s most significant car plant, in 2017 as output dropped 11 percent, struck by levies and crackdowns on diesel.
“Nissan has boosted its investments in new powertrains and technology for its future European cars,” the company stated. “As a result the company has chosen to enhance its investments in Europe by consolidating X-Trail production in Kyushu.”
“While we have taken this decision for business factors, the ongoing uncertainty around the UK’s future connection with the EU is not helping companies like ours to plan for the future,” stated Nissan Europe Chairman Gianluca de Ficchy.
Britain’s business minister Greg Clark stated the news was a “blow to the field as well as the region.”
Britain is due to depart from the European Union on March 29. Legislators last month rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal, enhancing concerns of a disorderly no-deal Brexit and also of new profession barriers. May stated on Sunday she would certainly look for a “pragmatic solution”.
In a letter to employees, de Ficchy stated Nissan has a task force that reports to him as well as is “taking into consideration all of the possible circumstances and the possible impact on the business.”
Nissan builds roughly 30 percent of the country’s 1.52 million cars and exports the vast majority to the continent.
It stated four months after Britain voted to leave the EU in June 2016 that it would manufacture the new X-Trail in Britain – a major vote of confidence in the nation as well as May, soon after she took office.