00:00Alan Johnson, the Senior Vice President for Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Purchasing for Nissan's Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania operations,
00:09told members of the House of Commons Business and Trade Committee that the Sunderland factory pays more for its electricity than any other Nissan plant in the world.
00:18He said, we are in a competition, you have to compete.
00:20It is becoming more and more evident to me that manufacturing vehicles in high volume in the UK is not competitive.
00:26It is not a competitive location to be building high volume production these days.
00:31Nissan announced last year that it would be cutting around 9,000 jobs worldwide following financial results for the first half of 2024.
00:38That revealed how its operating profit plummeted by £1.59 billion.
00:44Talks over a merger with fellow Japanese firm Honda subsequently collapsed and factory closures have since been announced.
00:50The Sunderland plan, where around 6,000 people are employed, has emerged relatively unscathed so far.
00:56While it was confirmed in February that a late shift on one of Nissan's wearside production lines would be closed,
01:02no jobs were lost as a result, as roughly 400 affected workers were switched onto other lines to maximise efficiency.
01:09At Tuesday's hearing in Parliament, Mr Johnson called for more to be done to incentivise the sale and production of electric vehicles in the UK.
01:17However, he welcomed a relaxation on regulations on zero emission vehicles.
01:22Nissan has previously warned that a mandate requiring 80% of new cars sold by each manufacturer in the UK to be zero emissions by 2030 risks undermining the business case for manufacturing cars in the UK
01:33and the viability of thousands of jobs and billions of pounds in investment.
01:37Labor confirmed earlier this month that it would give car manufacturers more flexibility in the run-up to that day and allow hybrids to be sold for longer.
01:44FM smoke
01:56Comp rencontres
01:57Thank you
01:58Thank you
01:59Thank you
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