Nissan Spain Finally Gets New Model

MADRID – Nissan’s Barcelona plant will build an all-new model car after all, now that the Japanese auto maker has reversed an earlier decision to produce the vehicle at either its Sunderland, U.K., operation or Turkey assembly plant.

Barcelona initially was targeted for the program, but failure to reach a new concessionary deal with labor unions there late last year had Nissan looking to source the vehicle elsewhere.

Only after a deal was struck in January, followed by heavy lobbying by Nissan Spain General Manager Frank Torres and Nissan Europe production chief John Martin, did the parent company in Japan reverse its decision and put the project back at the Barcelona plant.

The new car is expected to be a wagon version of an existing Nissan model, with production slated to begin in summer 2014.

Barcelona also will increase by 24,000 units annually production of an upcoming model to replace the Navara pickup and add manufacturing of two new gearboxes for its NV-200 light-commercial vehicle and Leaf electric sedans. Both moves also come as a result of the new labor deal.

About 1,000 new direct jobs and 3,000 indirect jobs will be created as part of the industrial actions.

A switch in the sourcing of the new model to the U.K. or Turkey likely would have delayed its production. Nissan Europe initially conducted a viability study for the project only at the Spanish plant, so more work would have been needed to get another facility ready.

“When the production of the new models reaches its cruise speed in the next years, more than 200,000 yearly units will be assembled in the Barcelona plant,” Torres says in announcing the program to plant workers.

The bad news is Barcelona will stop assembling the X-83 model, a light-commercial vehicle marketed as the Renault Trafic, Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro and Nissan Primastar. The next-generation X-83 is moving to a French plant for 2014.