Nissan dismisses claims it has snubbed its Sunderland plant to build new electric SUV in Japan amid Brexit fears

News service Bloomberg has reported that the firm had considered building its new battery-powered Ariya SUV at its Wearside plant but decided to make it in its homeland of Japan and ship the car to Europe instead.

But the firm has insisted that the plan was always to build the model in the Far East.

A Nissan spokesman said: “Production of the new Nissan Ariya has been planned for our Tochigi plant in Japan for several years, and was confirmed in July when we unveiled this exciting new model.”

It is the second time in recent weeks that the company has been forced to dismiss claims over the future of the Sunderland factory.

Reports on social media last month quoted a German automotive magazine which claimed an un-named manager had said the factory was facing the axe.

The reports said the source’s comments translate as ‘Nissan plans to close its Sunderland plant....A decision has been made and it’s not favourable for the UK’.

Nissan has repeatedly warned that the future of its UK operation would be in jeopardy in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Global chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta told the BBC earlier this year that the EU was the biggest customer for vehicles built at Sunderland, with around 70 per cent of cars from there going to the EU.

And he warned a 10 per cent tariff - which would be the default World Trade Organisation rate in the event of no-deal - would mean such an arrangement was not viable in the long-term.

And on a visit to the plant last year, European chairman Gianluca de Ficchy told reporters the company was desperate for clarity on what form the future relationship between the UK and EU would take and warned of the consequences of No-deal: “If a No-deal scenario means a sudden application of the WTO (World Trade Organisation) tariffs, we know that in that case our business model won’t be sustainable in the future,” he said.

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