He continued to say Nissan’s level of investment in the UK depended on the agreement reached between the UK and the EU over customs and trade, although he was clear that prices of European-built cars will rise in the UK as sterling weakens post-Brexit.
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Renault-Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn said United Kingdom investment will depend on the outcome of Brexit talks.
Nissan’s Sunderland plant built almost one in three of Britain’s 1.6m cars previous year – however, most of the site’s output is exported to the rest of Europe. “That will determine how, and how much we will invest in the United Kingdom”.
Today, the Renault Nissan plant directly employs 6,700 people, and is reckoned to generate another 27,000 jobs in the surrounding area.
However he said his company was not yet ready to make a decision on investment plans for its Sunderland plant, which employs almost 7,000 people and sources parts from a number of companies operating in the United Kingdom plastics sector.
He said “most companies” will be waiting to see what happens before making decisions about investments.
Mr Ghosn said: “Most of the production out of Sunderland is exported to Europe”.
Like many other companies, Renault-Nissan is now waiting to find out exactly what “Brexit” meant and the kind of trade relationship the United Kingdom would have with the rest of Europe, when negotiations are completed. So the future investment decisions are going to depend a lot into.
“We are reasonably optimistic that at the end of the day common sense is going to prevail from both sides”, he said.
A spokesman for the North East Chamber of Commerce said: “It will be a decision for Nissan to take but what we want to see is action from government during the Brexit negotiations to ensure the North East does not lose out as a result of any new arrangements”.
Nissan has invested around £4bn ($5.25bn) in its British manufacturing base but many firms are now closely watching formal talks on Britain’s divorce terms from the European Union, which are unlikely to start until next year.
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