Nissan is cutting hundreds of jobs at Britain’s biggest auto manufacturing plant, the Sunderland facility in northeast England, due to “declining demand for diesel models across Europe,” Reuters reports.
Orders for the company’s Qashqai and Juke models have fallen by 35% this year in Britain, the continent’s second-largest auto market. By comparison, demand in the overall sector is down 12%.
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“We will be managing a planned short-term reduction in powertrain supply and plant volumes,” the company said in a statement. “This is not related to Brexit. In time, we expect volumes to increase as we prepare to launch the next generation Juke, Qashqai, and X-Trail.”
But Reuters says demand for diesel vehicles “fell by a third in the first three months of this year in Britain, hit by continued consumer concern over planned tax rises and proposed bans and restrictions in several cities around the world.”
The news agency adds that “Jaguar Land Rover is cutting around 1,000 jobs and output at two of its factories, after a fall in sales which the industry has partly blamed on confusion over government diesel policy, with a tax hike having come into force this month.”
