Nissan to cancel X-Trail production plans in latest car industry setback
The UK car industry is set to suffer another blow next week when Nissan announces that it will be cancelling plans to manufacture its X-Trail model at its Sunderland plant.
An announcement will be made on Monday by the company's executives and casts further doubt over Nissan's future investment in Britain, according to Sky News.
Precise details of the Japanese car-maker's announcement are unclear but Sky News understands that it will initially back out of its plans to produce the X-Trail model, which it confirmed in 2016.
None of the 7,000 jobs at the plant in Sunderland are thought to be under threat from the decision because it was involving future investment but it is further bad news for the industry with less than eight weeks until the UK is due to leave the EU.
Nissan is currently the second largest car-maker in the UK and produces its electric car, the Leaf, and a number of other models like the Juke and CX30 in the North East, with a total of 440,000 vehicles produced there in 2018.