Is the future of the Sunderland Nissan site assured?
- Following the announcement that the Nissan Note would leave the Sunderland plant assembly lines in 2017 and that keeping the Nissan Juke was not guaranteed at medium term (production of European versions of new Juke has however been confirmed to start in Sunderland in 2017), the question arises as to whether the activity of the Nissan Plant is really assured in the coming years, especially in the case of a hard Brexit (with reinstatement of customs duties).
- the last decade the Sunderland plant had already removed several models from its assembly lines: Almera in 2006, Primera in 2007, Micra in 2010. But these removals had been made with objective to prepare the arrival of the SUV Qashqai, whose production level is 300 000 vehicles a year since 2011.
- The Nissan Juke and Note made it possible to saturate the Sunderland assembly lines, enabling the plant to approach the 500,000 units produced each year, making it one of the most important European factories in Europe in terms of production volume and the largest plant of the Renault-Nissan group on the European continent.
- The closure of this plant is therefore unlikely at short term (the next generation of Nissan Qashqai will be launched in 2021, which gives time for the decision) since, on the one hand, the Renault-Nissan group does not have at this time other plants in Europe capable of absorbing Sunderland's production and, on the other hand, Sunderland plant has a high volume model (Qashqai) being in the position to use its capacities.
- The future X-Trail (60,000 sales a year in Europe – launch planned in 2021) to be launched in 2019/2020 could also be manufactured in Sunderland, alongside the Qashqai.
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