The seven Nissan factories on the chopping block revealed? Plant closures in Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Argentina and India all under consideration: report

Nissan will shut down two car assembly plants in Japan as well as factories in Argentina, Mexico, South Africa and India as part of its cost-cutting measures outlined last week, according to sources close to the matter.

Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun reported Nissan will close its Oppama plant, where production started in 1961, and its Shonan plant, where production started in 1966. The move would leave just three vehicle assembly plants in Japan.

The Oppama plant primarily builds electric vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf and Nissan Note, while the Shonan plant produces commercial vehicles for the domestic market, such as the AD Wagon, NV200 Vanette and Caravan. Previously it built the Y61 Nissan Patrol.

As of November last year, the Oppama plant employed about 3900 people, while the Shonan plant employed about 1200. Nissan last closed a domestic factory – its Maruyama plant – in 2001.

Overseas, reports suggest Nissan will shift its Argentinian production to Mexico, where its Frontier (or Navara pick up as we know it) and X-Trail models are built for the domestic and some export markets.

Mexico itself is not safe from plant closures either, with at least one of three of the country’s plants also at risk of closure, along with plants in South Africa and India.

Nissan has not confirmed the reports publicly, instead referring to them as speculative, despite its confirmation last week that 11,000 job cuts (on top of the 9000 announced last November) and seven plant closures would be necessary to keep the brand afloat.

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Publicly, Nissan has confirmed that it plans to sell its 51 per cent stake in its Indian joint venture with Renault, the Renault Nissan Automotive India Private Ltd (RNAIPL), to its French partner.

Despite running significantly under capacity for a number of years, Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa confirmed the brand’s Sunderland plant in the UK, which currently builds the Qashqai, Juke and soon the new Leaf, was safe from closure.

Last year it built just 268,000 cars, well under its capacity for 600,000 vehicles. Espinosa has said, however, that the brand is open to building cars from its partners there, such as Chinese EV brand Dongfeng, to shore up the factory’s future profitability.

Nissan and Dongfend currently operate in China as a joint venture, with Dongfeng set to build Nissan’s new plug-in hybrid ute, the Frontier Pro.

It comes as Nissan’s 2024 Fiscal results published last week revealed the brand had a net loss of 670.9 billion yen (A$7 billion) in the 12 months to March 2025, with extreme cost-cutting measures necessary to find some 500 billion yen (A$5.2 billion) in savings.