Japan’s Nissan is in talks to allow Taiwan’s Foxconn to use one of the carmaker’s domestic factories to build electric vehicles, said two people familiar with the matter, a deal that could save the plant from closure.
Reuters reported in May that Nissan was considering closing its Oppama plant, in the port city of Yokosuka south of Tokyo. CEO Ivan Espinosa has announced sweeping restructuring plans aimed at turning around the struggling carmaker, including closing seven of Nissan’s 17 factories globally and reducing its workforce by 15%.
Allowing electronics manufacturer Foxconn to produce its own EVs at Oppama could avert plant closure, mitigating the impact of restructuring the plant’s 3,900 employees and suppliers, the people said, declining to be identified.
The discussions were first reported by the Nikkei business daily late on Sunday.
Nissan in a statement said the Nikkei report was not based on information released by the carmaker. A Foxconn spokesperson did not respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.
In May, Nissan’s junior partner Mitsubishi signed a memorandum of understanding with a Foxconn subsidiary for the Taiwanese firm to supply it with an EV model.