Demand for diesel vehicles continues to fall across Europe amid the growing evidence of the health problems caused by NO2 from its fumes. The resulting decline in sales means many automakers are rethinking their strategies – and Nissan is only the latest of these.
The company builds its Qashqai and Juke models at its site in Sunderland, UK, where it currently employs 7000 people, but hundreds of these are set to lose their jobs amid news that Nissan’s sales have fallen 35% this year – well below the overall industry decline of 12%.
These job losses in part reflect Nissan’s decision to switch production to a new range of powertrains over the coming years.
A spokesperson from the company said: “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 NMUK in line with our 2018 Business Plan. We are now discussing these operational changes with our employees."
Nissan expects that production and sales volumes will start to recover as it begins work on the news models.