Nissan is the latest car maker to dial down its European focus Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi are among the Japanese firms to look to other global markets for growth Nissan’s announcement that Jaecoo owner Chery is ready to take over one of the two production lines at its underutilised Sunderland plant neatly illustrates a wider trend: that Japanese car companies are facing an existential crisis in Europe as their fingertip hold on a difficult market is now starting to crumble in the face of Chinese competition.
All Japanese brands bar Toyota are struggling to compete in the region and Nissan is the latest to admit that it can no longer commit to developing models just for Europe. “The competition is getting more and more severe with Chinese players,” said Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa at last month's Financial Times Future of the Car Summit. “Traditionally we were investing a lot in specific products for Europe. With the scale that we have, it has proven not sustainable.” Nissan becomes the latest Japanese brand after Honda and Mitsubishi to deprioritise Europe and instead focus on core regions, which in Nissan’s case means Japan, North America and China.
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