Nissan to cut 250 jobs at its Sunderland plant

Nissan will cut around 250 jobs at its Sunderland factory as it looks to “support future competitiveness” following a difficult 2025.

This will be part of a voluntary redundancy scheme, Nissan has confirmed, and will not affect manufacturing staff. 

Some 6000 people are employed at the plant which builds the Qashqai and Juke. The new Leaf will also be built there, as will the electric Juke from next year, following more than £2billion of investment.

A Nissan spokesperson said: “In order to support future competitiveness, this week we are beginning discussions with some of our team in Sunderland about the opportunity to voluntarily leave Nissan, with support from the company. 

"This will support the plant's efficiency as we aim to become a leaner, more resilient business."

It added that the plant “remains at the forefront of our electrification strategy”.

This follows an announcement back in May when Nissan said it would cut 20,000 jobs and close seven plants globally, while also pausing all post-2026 product work in a bid to claw back profitability after recording a £3.8 billion net loss in the 2024/25 financial year.

This was the second cost cutting announcement  aimed at stemming heavy losses; in February it said it would reduce its workforce by 9000, close three plants and slash production by 20% (to five million vehicles per year).

The Japanese company said it plans to reduce annual costs by £1.3bn by 2027

The latest announcement comes as Nissan published its half year numbers, which revealed a 19% year-on-year slump in production from the North of England factory between January and May this year.

May itself recorded a huge 38.4% drop compared to the year before, the biggest fall across all of Nissan’s global factories (which saw a combined 16.5% drop in May and a 13.3% from January to May).