Bad news for Canada, which had long dreamed of becoming one of the main hubs for electric mobility but instead finds itself chasing foreign manufacturers (having no native ones) heading elsewhere, both to avoid Donald Trump’s wrath and because plug-in cars no longer seem to be the horse to bet on at the moment.
After Stellantis, Honda has also announced that it has frozen its Canadian activities and is not the only Japanese brand overwhelmed by the crisis that is tightening purse strings in the West: broadening the scope to other latitudes, Nissan is already sharpening the axe of cuts to bring it down on the historic Sunderland plant in the UK and the rest of the Old Continent. But let’s proceed in order.
NISSAN CUTS IN EUROPE
Starting with issues closer to home, Nissan, intending to optimize resources after last year’s major setback, has recently, as is known, already made confetti of its plans on the American electric car to focus entirely on traditional SUVs and pickups, but in Europe it is preparing to serve much more drastic solutions since the Japanese company has finalized a plan to close two production lines at its Sunderland factory in the United Kingdom, also cutting nearly a thousand jobs across the Old Continent.
PRODUCTION HALVED IN TEN YEARS
The historic UK plant, which has been the core of its European activities since 1986, is therefore targeted for savings. Not a bolt from the blue, however, considering that in the last decade British production has dropped from 507,430 cars in 2016 to 273,174 in 2025 and at this pace is now close to halving.
IS NISSAN SELLING SOME UK LINES TO THE CHINESE?
According to rumors circulating for some time, the Japanese would be proposing to some Chinese brands (Chery and Dongfeng are mentioned) a peculiar cohabitation: renting the British lines that are falling into disuse in order to safeguard employment and, above all, ensure an economic return.
For their part, the Dragon’s brands would have the advantage of settling in “ready-to-use settlements,” strategically located near major communication lines and with a skilled workforce. In short, a win-win solution for both parties that also recalls what, according to rumors, Stellantis wants to implement for its underutilized plants here in Europe (Cassino is rumored to be the fate, for example).
TOWARDS THE CUT OF 900 JOBS
But unfortunately, Nissan’s maneuver will not be limited to the British lines: about 900 jobs across the Old Continent, out of a total of about 9,300 current employees, will also be cut. It is understood that the Japanese company will start with administrative roles and logistics personnel, tasks that nowadays can be more easily automated than others thanks to AI and robots.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the hardest blow will be absorbed by Spain, where there is a proposal on the table to discuss with trade unions and the political world about reducing the size of the Barcelona spare parts warehouse (which barely survived the severe cuts of 2020) that could leave 500 workers unemployed. It will be difficult for Europeans to negotiate more favorable situations considering that the economic context last year pushed Nissan to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for 643 million dollars and then lease it back.
HONDA WITHDRAWS FROM CANADIAN SHORES…
Speaking of a deep crisis and dramatic moves, Honda, whose executives cut their salaries (a modern and traditional version of the samurai seppuku) and reluctantly decided to throw prestigious collaborations with Sony into the trash, has not been any less so far.
And in its savings plans, it intends to involve the workforce based in Canada. The second largest Japanese automaker by sales volume had announced an investment of 15 billion Canadian dollars, about 9.4 billion euros, for the construction of a gigafactory dedicated to the production of electric cars and batteries.
A PROJECT HIT BY A PREVIOUS POSTPONEMENT
The project, which in 2024 was postponed from 2028 to the end of the decade, has now been officially put on ice pending better times. Too many uncertainties are linked both to the actual convenience and sustainability of such massive electric car production and especially to Donald Trump’s tariffs, given that the gigafactory Honda wanted to establish in Canada was also intended to serve the United States.
It should also not be forgotten that Honda, recently, deeply reviewing its electrification plans for the range, has canceled the development of three electric models intended for the North American market (Trump, as is known, does not like battery cars and immediately scrapped the incentives promoted by Biden that drove demand), while on the financial front it expects to record a net loss between 420 and 690 billion yen (about 3.75 billion euros) in the last fiscal year.
