Add Category
"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," said Europe Chairman Gianluca de Ficchy.
Britain's business minister Greg Clark described the announcement as a "blow to the sector and the region."
Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29. Lawmakers last month rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, which would have guaranteed a transition period. The rejection has heightened fears of a disorderly no-deal Brexit and of new trade barriers.
May said on Sunday she was still seeking a "pragmatic solution" to the Brexit impasse.
It's been a remarkable fall from grace for Nissan's Sunderland plant, which 20 years ago was the most productive car manufacturing plant in Europe.Credit:AP
"We have a task force in place, reporting to me, that is considering all of the possible scenarios and the potential impact on the business," De Ficchy said in a letter to workers.
Nissan builds roughly 30 per cent of the country's 1.52 million cars and exports the vast majority to the continent
It said four months after Britain voted to leave the EU in June 2016 that it would manufacture the new X-Trail in Britain – a major vote of confidence in the country and May.
Nissan's decision is a major blow for British Prime Minister Theresa May, who had used the company's commitment to the UK as an example of confidence in the country's post-Brexit economy.Credit:AP
Nissan had at the time received a letter from the government promising extra support in the event that Brexit hit the competitiveness of the Sunderland plant.
Loading
The new X-Trail would have created hundreds of jobs.
The carmaker's planned investment in the next-generation Juke and Qashqai models, which was also announced in 2016, was unaffected, the firm said on Sunday.
The timing of the announcement comes just two days after an EU-Japan free trade agreement kicked in, which includes the European Union's commitment to removing tariffs of 10 per cent on imported Japanese cars.
Many Japanese companies had long seen Britain as the gateway into Europe, after being encouraged to open factories in the country by former prime minister Margaret Thatcher. However Brexit has thrown that into doubt, prompting consternation in Tokyo.
Sunday's announcement also comes as the firm continues to deal with the fallout from the arrest of its former boss Carlos Ghosn, which has clouded the outlook for the automaking alliance between Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi.
Reuters