Nissan hits pause on Britain: the Sunderland plant won't get JATCO's new project

© A. Krivonosov

Nissan is reworking its electric plans yet again. According to Nikkei, subsidiary JATCO has walked away from a project to build EV powertrains in Sunderland, in the UK. The reason — weak demand for Nissan's electric models in Europe.

The project looked serious: in January 2025, JATCO announced an investment of £48.7 million (about $65 million) and planned to produce up to 340,000 electric drive units a year. These were integrated modules combining the electric motor, inverter and reducer. The units were meant to supply Nissan for its local EV programme.

The cancellation fits into Nissan's broader restructuring. The company had earlier said it would cut the number of vehicle assembly plants from 17 to 10 and review the operations of its powertrain facilities. It is a painful moment for the brand: Nissan was one of the first to deliver a mass-market EV with the Leaf, yet it now has to weigh the payback on its EV investments far more carefully.

Sunderland remains an important Nissan site in Europe, but scrapping the JATCO project shows that even localising components is no longer guaranteed if EV sales fail to deliver the necessary volume. For suppliers, that is especially dangerous: a plant built for 340,000 units a year only makes sense with confident utilisation.

The main takeaway is an unpleasant one for the entire industry. Electric cars are still seen as the future, but manufacturers are no longer willing to build capacity «for growth» at any cost. If demand sags, projects are shut down before they even launch. For Nissan, survival and profitability now matter more than glossy promises of a rapid electric leap.