Nissan announced on May 5, 2026 that it will cut approximately 900 jobs across Europe, roughly 10% of its 9,300-person European workforce. The cuts are concentrated in white-collar and warehouse roles, with about 500 redundancies in Spain and a smaller number of UK-based office roles. At the Sunderland UK plant, Nissan is merging the two production lines that currently produce the Qashqai, Juke, and Leaf into a single consolidated line.
Nissan said no direct manufacturing jobs at Sunderland will be lost as part of the consolidation. The freed-up second line is being held open for potential contract production with another manufacturer. Reports indicate Nissan has been in talks with several companies including China-based Chery, the parent of the Jaecoo and Omoda brands.
The cuts are part of what Nissan calls its RE:Nissan recovery plan, a multi-year restructuring effort designed to return the automaker to durable profitability. Management characterized the changes as building a "leaner, more resilient business that adapts quickly to market changes." The May 5 action is the first formal European tranche of RE:Nissan; further global cuts have been signaled but not yet quantified.
The plan responds to two compounding pressures. First, Nissan's European margins have compressed under intensifying Chinese EV competition and persistently high input costs. Second, EV uptake across Europe has slowed against earlier forecasts, leaving Nissan with surplus capacity at Sunderland and elsewhere on the continent.
Nissan joins Volkswagen Group, Porsche, and Stellantis in a 2026 wave of European auto workforce reductions tied to slower-than-expected EV adoption and rising Chinese competition. What distinguishes Nissan's announcement is the Sunderland consolidation. The Sunderland plant has been a symbolic anchor for UK automotive manufacturing for nearly four decades, and the decision to free up one of its production lines for potential contract use signals that Nissan no longer expects to use the full Sunderland footprint on its own model lineup at current volume.
The Chery conversation, if it converts into a firm deal, would be the first major case of a Chinese automaker leasing UK production capacity from an incumbent. That outcome would set a template for how surplus European auto capacity gets absorbed over the next three years. Watch the Q3 2026 update to RE:Nissan for the global headcount number behind the European tranche.