‘New Nissan X-Trail WON’T be built in the UK’
The new Nissan X-Trail SUV was supposed to be built in Sunderland, but Nissan is set to announce it is keeping X-Trail production in Japan.
More than two years ago, shortly after the UK voted for Brexit, Carlos Ghosn, then Nissan boss, secured a ‘letter’ from the UK government which convinced Nissan the UK would still be a good place to do business for Nissan post-Brexit.
As a result of that reassurance, Nissan announced the next-generation X-Trail will be built in Sunderland, rather than Japan, and confirmed the next-generation Qashqai would continue to be built in Sunderland too.
But much has changed since that letter; Carlos Ghosn is gone, Brexit is a bit of a mess and diesel sales have crashed through the floor. So it appears Nissan has had a re-think.
According to Sky News, Nissan are set to announce tomorrow (Monday 4 February) that the planned move of X-Trail production to Sunderland is to be scrapped, although it seems production of the next-generation Qashqai is safe.
It’s a blow for Sunderland – although it’s likely to mean no additional jobs, rather than affecting current staff – and most will doubtless blame the Brexit mess for the decision.
But although the X-Trail is the best-selling model worldwide, it’s not in Europe. And when Nissan announced that X-Trail production was moving to Sunderland there was a real expectation that it would be diesel-engined X-Trails churning out to fulfil demand. But not any more.
Nissan has already announced it will end diesel sales in the UK and Europe, so it’s likely the majority of new X-Trail models will be petrol and hybrid. So it probably makes more sense to continue production in Japan, rather than move it to the UK.
No doubt Brexit chaos plays a part in Nissan’s decision, but diesel woes are probably the biggest part of the decision.
Nissan officially confirms new X-Trail won’t be built in Sunderland.
Nissan has now officially confirmed that the new X-Trail, originally planned to be produced in Sunderland, will now be produced in Japan.
Nissan say much as we said in the article; it makes sense, with Nissan moving away from diesels in the UK and Europe, to keep X-Trail production in Japan. Nissan also confirms Sunderland will still build the next-generation Qashqai and Juke. Nissan’s Gianluca de Ficchy said:
Nissan is investing heavily in new technologies and powertrains for the next generation of vehicles in our Sunderland plant. To support this we are taking advantage of our global assets, and with X-Trail already manufactured in Japan, we can reduce our upfront investment costs.
We appreciate this will be disappointing for our UK team and partners. Our workforce in Sunderland has our full confidence, and will continue to benefit from the investment planned for Juke and Qashqai.
While we have taken this decision for business reasons, the continued uncertainty around the UK’s future relationship with the EU is not helping companies like ours to plan for the future.
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