Senior Nissan Sunderland chief says it's becoming too expensive to build cars in the UK

Alan Johnson, senior vice president for manufacturing, supply chain and purchasing for Nissan's Africa, Middle East, India, Europe and Oceania operations, told MPs that the Sunderland plant "pays more for its electricity than any other Nissan plant in the world".

Mr Johnson added: "It is energy costs, it is the cost of everything involved in the cost of labour, training. It is the supplier base or lack of. All sorts of different issues.

"Ultimately, the UK is not a competitive place to be building cars today."

Mr Johnson was speaking to MPs at yesterday’s (April 22) hearing of the House of Commons' Business and Trade Committee where he also called for more to be done to incentivise the sale and production of electric vehicles in the UK.

He welcomed a relaxation of regulations on Zero Emissions Vehicles (ZEVs) announced by prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and the less severe sanctions for not hitting targets.

Speaking to the Echo in December the chancellor Rachel Reeves said: "We inherited the electric vehicle mandate from the previous Government and although car sales of electric vehicles have gone up by more than 50%, car manufacturers are worried about hitting those targets and the fines that come if they don't meet them.

“That's why we have announced a review of those targets we inherited because I'm determined to support car manufacturing in the UK and here in Sunderland. We need to look again at those targets."

The statement from Mr Johnson will no doubt be of concern to the 6,000 strong workforce who are employed at the Sunderland manufacturing plant.

In February (2025) Nissan confirmed one of its line one late shifts was no longer operating, however the move didn’t lead to any job losses with workers moved to the line two shift.

A Nissan spokesperson said the move was to “maximise the efficiency” of its vehicle production.

In November the Japanese car giant announced it was planning to scale back production and cut 9,000 jobs across its worldwide operations.

Nissan and other Japanese car makers have been impacted by an upsurge in competition in China, previously a key market, as the country’s domestic manufacturers produce low-cost, high-tech electric vehicles (EVs).

We have contacted Nissan Sunderland to see if they wish to elaborate on Mr Johnson’s comments and were informed the company has nothing further to add.