The British arm of Japanese car maker Nissan increased annual profits last year ahead of warnings by senior executives that the Brexit vote could undermine its business and put investment plans in jeopardy.
Nissan’s British subsidiary, which is centred around its Sunderland car factory, reported a jump in pre-tax profits of 21% to £117m for the 12 months to the end of March.
The car maker sought and won assurances from Theresa May that the government would seek tariff-free access for the car industry in talks with the European Union once article 50 talks begin next April.
But Greg Clark, the business secretary, has refused to give details of the meetings with Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, sparking criticism that the company secured a “sweetheart deal”.
It is not known whether Nissan revealed “in talks with Clark” that, while its profits increased, revenues dropped by 1.4% to £5.19bn and production fell by 3,000 vehicles to 478,000.
Nissan said it had been “another year of very strong production for the Sunderland site”, which is due to build the new Qashqai and X-Trail models at the plant following the government’s assurances.
Nissan’s Sunderland site, which exports more than 80% of its production, is Britain’s biggest car factory and the company has about 7,500 UK employees.
Like the rest of Britain’s car industry, Nissan has voiced concerns that quitting the EU’s single market will lead to higher tariffs on cars and crippling regulations that raise the cost of exporting its vehicles.
The company warned “any substantive change to the trading arrangements between the UK and the rest of the world could limit the company’s competitiveness”.
They also expressed concerns over higher employment costs, “which given the size of our workforce, could have an adverse effect on the company”.
The concerns come as Nissan, its parent company Renault and Mitsubishi Motors prepare to combine their electric vehicle investments in an effort to slash prices down to levels comparable to conventional gasoline cars, according to the Nikkei newspaper.
Auto giants Volkswagen and Toyota are also aiming to mass-produce battery electric vehicles amid tightening emissions and fuel-economy regulations around the world.
Renault and Nissan have been among the most vocal proponents of the zero-emission technology but have struggled to lower costs enough as they developed their electric cars separately.
The Nikkei said Renault and Mitsubishi, which recently came under Nissan’s control, will use the same vehicle platform as Nissan’s remodelled Leaf electric car, which is expected to go on sale around 2018.
The three companies will share key components such as the motor, inverter and battery, a move that would lower the Leaf’s price by about a fifth, the paper said, without citing its sources.
