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Nissan assigns Sunderland projects to Spanish plant

Car manufacturer Nissan announced it would not be making its new passenger car in Sunderland as formerly planned.

The firm said production would take place in Barcelona, after a €110m (£93.1m) investment in the Spanish plant.

A further €14m (£11.9m) investment will enable the Barcelona plant to manufacture 24,000 extra units of its “1 ton” pickup model, while €6m (£5.1m) will go towards the production of electric vehicle gear boxes.

1,000 direct Spanish jobs will be created along with 3,000 indirect jobs and production will begin on the car in July 2014.

Nissan’s Sunderland plant has received £250m of investment to build a new Inifiniti small car from 2015, as an alternative to the projects assigned to the Barcelona site.

Frank Torres, Nissan Motor Ibérica managing director, commented: “In the coming years, Barcelona plant will work at full capacity, with an annual output over 200,000 units while maintaining its attractiveness to produce new models.

“Given the current crisis environment, this is not only a great achievement for Nissan, but for the entire industry in [Spain].”

The most important thing now is to be able to ensure the successful launch of these products and keep the competitiveness commitment. If we do, I am sure new opportunities will come.“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .