• Motor.Nissan will close the Barcelona factory, according to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei
  • Industry: Nissan conflict: 1,000 strikers at cost of 100

Last morning, Nissan Motor described as " conjecture " the information from the Nikkei newspaper according to which it will close its car factory in Barcelona, ​​on which 3,000 direct jobs and 12,000 indirect jobs depend.

The last years of the factory, which operates at 20% of its capacity after it has been allowed to languish without guaranteeing any new model, give credibility to the information . The decision will be announced on May 28, but it will be just one more move in the chess game being played by multinationals driven by the coronavirus crisis. Will more pieces move on the Spanish board?

According to the English media, it could be. In a typical nationalistic display of the Financial Times , the latter spread on Thursday the idea that, in exchange for the closure of Barcelona, Nissan wants to take part of the production of the Renault Captur and Kadjar that are made to its Sunderland plant (United Kingdom) in Valladolid and Palencia , respectively. The transfer would be relatively easy: these models share an endless number of parts with the Nissan Juke and Qashqai that are assembled in the British factory where, in addition, there is an overcapacity of more than 100,000 vehicles at the moment.

Speculation doesn't make much sense if you look at the Renault and Nissan accounts . To this must be added the threat of tariffs posed by Brexit for British companies; that the cars are cheaper to produce here and that the Castilian factories are not oversaturated either. Finally, Renault has invested 750 million in them since 2017 for those cars (and others, such as the new Mégane) and it would cost much more to amortize them. It would be undressing a saint to dress another.

On the contrary, if the reformulation of the Nissan plan involves focusing on Asia and North America, leaving the leadership in Europe to the diamond brand, it would seem more logical to leave the United Kingdom in the medium term ; Decapitalize Sunderland and send its production to Renault plants in France, Spain or the rest of the Old Continent.

The new policy

The Captur that the Financial Times was talking about just a few months ago that began to be produced in Valladolid in its second generation. Like this plant, the others that operate in our country have received or will shortly receive new models. To cite only those to come: the new Citroën C4 at PSA Madrid and a third car for VW Navarra. So, even with ailments such as those that Ford Valencia may suffer within the European adjustment of the company, they have a future for several years . They will have to worry when they have to fight for the new awards, especially that of electrified cars, which are called to star in the future.

Currently, they already make several battery-powered models, but their total weight is still very small and they are variants of conventional cars, not created specifically. This is the case of small models of the Volkswagen Group that were to be developed under the leadership of Seat on a reduced MEB platform. The Spanish brand will continue in the project, but will no longer be at the forefront.

Of course, traditional variables will continue to operate. Carlos Tavares, CEO of PSA (the group of Peugeot and Citroën), already said last year that " the danger for Spanish plants is not France, but Morocco ", which is more competitive. It may be a half truth, because politics will be key. Thus, although Nissan and Renault are obliged to reorganize and make their businesses profitable, they are also urged to recompose the balance of forces in an alliance touched on by the Ghosn affair.

The starkest version of that new trend was staged this Monday, in the style of Donald Trump, the French Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire. The politician pointed out that both Renault and PSA - in both the French state has a high participation in capital - should think about recovering production for France . In fact, he related this withdrawal to the granting of immediate aid to the sector, such as the 5,000 million loan that they have offered to Renault.

In that repatriation, it is logical to look at our country. Last year alone, the Spanish PSA factories assembled 930,000 cars, and 477,000 those of Renault. Together, they make up half of all national production and are key for Spain to beat France one more year: 2.82 million compared to 2.2 million.

This places us as the second European power and the ninth in the world , but it is a surprising strength due to the asymmetry with the internal market. Luca de Meo, former president of Seat and since July at the helm of Renault, referred to it as "the Spanish miracle" because car registrations are less than half: 1.25 million, for the 2.2 million in the neighboring country.

But if Emmanuel Macron can send a send a protectionist message, Pedro Sánchez finds that the headquarters of the car companies are French, German, Italian or American. For this reason, the block sector - Anfac, Sernauto, Faconauto and Ganvam - have demanded a relaunch plan with urgent measures of a commercial, industrial and fiscal nature. A plan for "now, not for three months": "Because then we will be counting missing companies," complained José Vicente de los Mozos, president of Anfac. In addition, its implementation "would send the European plants a message that our country cares about this industry."

In this sense, the Executive is working on a general car purchase aid program and yesterday led the EU to a proposal by 12 countries for a part (up to 10%) of the European recovery plan to be specifically allocated to the car.

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Engine

MotorGenesis, the new rival luxury brand of Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW

The help to buy electric cars will start at 4,000 euros

Coronavirus "Children playing together": SocialDrive users point to irresponsible parents