Nissan has confirmed its UK factory in Sunderland – where several models including the Nissan Qashqai small SUV are made for Australia – will not be one of the seven plants the Japanese automaker intends to close by March 31, 2027.
Nissan Australia would not comment on the future of its casting plant in Dandenong, Melbourne, which is not listed as one of the company’s ‘major production facilities’ on its website.
A cost-cutting drive led by Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa – who took over the top job at the troubled automaker on April 1, 2025, after his predecessor was sacked – will involve shutting seven of the auto giant’s 17 factories, axing about 20,000 jobs and development delays for some new models.
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The closures were announced as part of the ‘Re:Nissan’ recovery plan after the automaker posted a net loss of ¥670.9 billion (A$7.1 billion) for the Japanese financial year that ended on March 31, 2025.
Nissan did not reveal which plants it intended to shut, only confirming the closures would take place before the end of the 2027 Japanese financial year.
The Sunderland plant southeast of Newcastle in England – where the Qashqai, Juke light SUV and Leaf electric car are built for Australia – appears to have been spared.
“In Europe, we will strengthen our presence by assembling more electric models in Sunderland,” Mr Espinosa told media following the announcement of the closures.
Sunderland is the brand’s only plant in Europe and makes more vehicles than any other British car factory, with 282,124 Nissans built there in 2024.
Since opening in 1986 it has produced more than 11 million vehicles.
A new-generation Leaf is set to be made there, as well as an electric version of the Nissan Micra city car and a battery-electric Juke SUV.
As well as the UK plant, Nissan vehicles sold in Australia also come from Japan, Thailand and the United States.
The Pathfinder large SUV sold in Australia is made in Smyrna, Tennessee, one of three US plants which also looks to be safe amid significant import tariffs applied in the US, the world’s second-largest new-vehicle market after China.
“Our manufacturing operations in Tennessee and Mississippi are strategically important to the company’s future in this crucial market,” Nissan Americas corporate communications director Kyle Bazemore told The Tennessean.
Nissan has attributed slow sales in the US to its failure to capitalise on the booming popularity of hybrid vehicles, which saw a 36.7 per cent sales increase there last year.
This was despite the brand’s e-Power hybrid vehicles being sold elsewhere, after they were first launched in Japan in 2016. The X-Trail e-Power was introduced in Australia in 2022, followed by a Qashqai e-Power in 2024.
The Nissan Casting Australia Plant (NCAP) – its official name – opened in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong in October 1982.
It exports components globally, including to the Sunderland plant, for the Qashqai, Leaf, Pathfinder, X-Trail and the Nissan Navara dual-cab ute, among many other models.
Nissan stopped manufacturing complete cars in Australia in 1992, when the Motor Industry Development Plan – better known as ‘The Button Plan’, after its creator Senator John Button – saw it start sharing locally made models with Ford and Holden.