Nissan will produce a new compact sedan in Barcelona
- Nissan will produce a new compact sedan at its plant in Barcelona Spain, allowing the creation of about a thousand direct jobs on site, but at lower wages than today (which will add 3,000 indirect jobs ). The plant management and the unions have indeed reached an competitiveness agreement that plansl ower wages and more flexible working hours.
- The Japanese automaker will invest 130 million euros for the manufacture of this model whose 80 000 units per year are planned from July 2014. The vehicle will compete with the Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus and Renault Megane. It is there a come back to a model positioning like the former Nissan Almera which had been removed from the range to launch the Qashqai crossover.
- Nissan believes there is a market within its model range not only for compact crossovers but also for a compact sedan . The Barcelona plant currently employs 3300 people and produces models Navara, NV200, Pathfinder and Primastar. Production of Pathfinder and Primastar is planned to be stopped in 2014. The plant produced 65,000 vehicles in 2012, representing 65% of its capacity (Note: the Nissan plant in Sunderland operates more than 100% of its capacity).
