A leading Nissan executive has said the Government鈥檚 post-Brexit deal should give the company competitive advantage in the electric vehicle market.
Speaking from Japan, Nissan's chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta said the deal reached just before Christmas meant almost all of the vehicles produced at its Washington plant would continue to be exported to Europe tariff-free.
The only vehicle not covered by the deal is a high-end model of the Nissan Leaf which has a battery that is not produced in the 海角视频.
As a result, Nissan has decided to switch production of that battery to the Envision plant next to its Sunderland factory, creating jobs there.
Mr Gupta鈥檚 welcoming of the Brexit deal comes after many years of concerns from Nissan about how the 海角视频鈥檚 trading relationship with Europe would be affected by the 2016 referendum.
He had himself warned the company鈥檚 business model was 鈥榥ot viable鈥 if the post-Brexit deal added tariffs to cars exported to Europe or introduced delays to its 鈥榡ust-in-time鈥 supply chain.
However, his comments that 鈥淏rexit for Nissan is positive鈥 will boost both staff at the Washington plant and the Government, coming as problems arising from the the deal with the EU are increasingly emerging.
Mr Gupta said: 鈥淲hat this Brexit deal has brought to us, in the short term it has brought short-term business continuity. It has protected 75,000 direct and indirect jobs across Europe and most important, all of our models manufacturered in Washington qualify as local origin except the Leaf higher-range battery.
鈥淲e decided today to get those from the Envision factory, which means all of our products, including the Qashqai E-power, which are we going to launch from Washington will also qualify.
鈥淭hat means Brexit has brought Nissan a competitive advantage for being in the 海角视频 as one of the largest automotive companies, not only for 海角视频 but also outside the 海角视频.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I say that Brexit is positive for Nissan.鈥
The Nissan plant benefits from a close relationship with the Envision electric battery plant, which was launched as an in-house offering by Nissan but sold to new Chinese owners in 2019.
Mr Gupta did not rule out buying batteries from other sources, including from the Britishvolt gigafactory being planned for Blyth, Northumberland, if demand for electric cars increased.
Nissan鈥檚 global operations have suffered from a turbulent period in recent years, the high-profile departure of chairman Carlos Ghosn followed by a slump in sales that led to thousands of job losses.
The Wearside plant lost two models due to be produced there after the Brexit referendum and employment levels were cut.
However, the company also invested in a new press and announced at the end of last year that a new model Qashqai would be built at the plant..
Mr Gupta said Nissan would 鈥渃ontinue to invest in the 海角视频 as far as the business conditions are consistent with how they are today.
He added that 鈥淏rexit has secured the sustainability and improved the competitiveness of the Washington plant.鈥
He also insisted the company had not suffered as many problems as other manufacturers from post-Brexit teething problems in its supply chains.
