Nissan is cutting 12,500 jobs

Trying times at Nissan – the company has announced it is cutting a whopping 12,500 jobs and plans to reduce production capacity and the size of its line-up by 10 per cent each by the end of the 2022 financial year. The company employs around 139,000 people, about 8,000 of which are based in the UK.

Nissan also announced a 94.5 per cent fall in net profits for the first quarter of 2019, and a 6 per cent fall in global sales.

Chief executive Hiroto Saikawa said 6,400 of the 12,500 job cuts have already been made, and that cuts to the company’s model line-up would mainly affect less profitable models, such as "compact cars and its Datsun range". No surprises there – the Nissan X-Trail ranks among the world’s best-selling SUVs, while the Qashqai is the fifth best-selling car in Britain so far this year.

Earlier this year Nissan announced Infiniti will stop selling cars in Western Europe by 2020, and thus production of the Q30 and QX30 at its Sunderland factory would end. The company has also said the next X-Trail will be built in Japan, after previously saying it would be produced in the UK.

We do not know if the Sunderland plant will be affected by the cuts, but it’s widely reported unions are hopeful it will be spared.