(Bloomberg) -- Nissan Motor Co. was given assurances by the U.K. government before last month's announcements of new investments that the industry would be kept competitive amid uncertainties over Brexit, said a top executive of the Japanese automaker.
“We talked with the U.K. government that in order to ensure competitiveness amid the uncertainties, what they will do, we are assured they will keep us competitive so we made the new investment announced last month,” Hiroto Saikawa, co-chief executive officer, said at a briefing in Yokohama, Japan, on Monday, without being more specific. “Between the U.K. and EU, we don't know what's going on, but we want the U.K. government to maintain competitiveness of entire industry.”
Nissan announced last month that it would start making the X-Trail sport utility vehicle and the next-generation Qashqai at its Sunderland car plant, the U.K.'s largest, only a month after warning that possible post-Brexit tariffs could damage investment. The sudden shift drew questions about what guarantees the government might have promised to keep Nissan in Britain.
U.K. Business Secretary Greg Clark said he had promised Nissan that the government would seek to maintain tariff-free access to the European Union once the U.K. has left the bloc.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ma Jie in Tokyo at jma124@bloomberg.net, Masatsugu Horie in Osaka at mhorie3@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chua Kong Ho at kchua6@bloomberg.net, Subramaniam Sharma
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