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By Costas Pitas
LONDON (Reuters) – The US automaker Nissan has abandoned plans to build its new X-Trail SUV in Britain. He announced that he had made the decision to consolidate his production in Japan and warned two months before Brexit that uncertainty made planning more difficult.
Nissan announced four months after Britain decided to leave the European Union in June 2016 as it manufactures the new X-Trail in Britain, considered a major vote of confidence for the country then the new Prime Minister, Theresa May.
A source told Reuters that Nissan had received a letter from the government at the time promising additional support in case the departure of Britain from the European Union would affect the competitiveness of its Sunderland plant, located north of England.
But Sunday, Nissan, which operates the largest car plant in the United Kingdom, where it builds about 30% of the 1.52 million cars in the country, announced the reversal of this decision.
"The company has decided to optimize its investments in Europe by consolidating X-Trail production in Kyushu, the production hub of this global model," the company said in a statement released on Sunday.
"Although we made this decision for business reasons, the lingering uncertainty surrounding future relations between the UK and the EU does not help companies like ours to plan the future. future, "said the president of the European Commission, Gianluca de Ficchy.
The company said the planned investments in the next-generation Juke and Qashqai, also announced in 2016, had not been affected.
Last year, Nissan removed hundreds of jobs at the Sunderland plant in response to declining demand for diesel models. Production at the site fell by 11% in 2018.
(Report by Costas Pitas, edited by Kylie MacLellan and Janet Lawrence)
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