Nissan announce ‘short term reduction’ in UK

Japanese car giant Nissan has announced a “short-term reduction” in volumes at its UK plant in Sunderland.

Some 7,000 people are employed at the vast site where the Juke, Leaf and Qashqai models are built though the firm declined to say if jobs will be lost.

New car sales fell 5.7 per cent in the UK last year as business and consumer confidence was dented and sales of diesel vehicles tumbled amid con- cerns over additional taxes. Last week, Jaguar Land Rover announced it was trimming production and would not be renewing the contracts of some 1,000 temporary workers at its Solihull plant.

Nissan said: “As previously communicated, we are transitioning to a new range of powertrains over the next year.

“As we make the operational changes required to support this, we will be managing a planned short-term reduction in powertrain supply and plant volumes at Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK.”