- Nissan announced the closure of its Spanish factory in Barcelona which operates only at 37% of its capacity in 2019 (against 55% in 2018), due to the shutdown of the Nissan Pulsar, Renault Trafic and Nissan NV200 with combustion engine, and to the failure of the Renault Alaskan and Mercedes X-Class pickups derived from the Nissan Navara. Pick-ups are not in high demand in Europe, so production of the Nissan Navaracould be transferred to Thailand, where Nissan is already producing it for the Asia-Pacific region.

- But the Barcelona site is only one part of Nissan’s objective to reduce its global capacity by around 20%, or about 1.2 million vehicles per year.

- Nissan has also announced that its global range will decrease from 69 models today to 55 models in 2023. Nissan is likely to focus on its major markets, such as North America and China, and to leave the European market to Renault, where it is in a better position.

- In this context, the Nissan Micra (54,000 sales in 2019 against an annual target of 130,000 units) is seriously threatened, Nissan could then focuses in Europe on the C and D segment models (sedans and SUVs).