The new Nissan CEO said the Japanese automaker will build cars for Chinese partners after its Sunderland plant confirmed it would not be closed in a round of cost-cutting.

Nissan revealed this week that it plans to close seven factories and lay off 20,000 jobs after suffering serious losses.

Ivan Espinosa said on Thursday that the UK plant in Sunderland will not be closed and he will consider building a car for China's Dongfeng.

Sunderland employs 6,000 people, is Nissan's only factory in Europe and the largest car factory in the UK, and Espinosa reiterates plans to build at least two new electric models there.

However, the Sunderland plant has been operating at capacity for several years. In 2024, it made only 282,000 cars, down 14% from the previous year, well below its 600,000 capacity. Building vehicles for another company can help the factory be more profitable and provide more work.

Nissan and Dongfen have worked together to build cars in Wuhan, China. When asked about the possibility of building Dongfeng in Sunderland, Espinosa said: "We are very open to working with them."

“Everything is on the table,” he said at an industry conference held by the Financial Times. “We can take advantage of some joint efforts outside of China and invite them into our production ecosystem.”

Espinosa was appointed in March and soon after it warned that the automaker could lose £4 billion this year, with Donald Trump's 25% tariff on auto imports intensified.

Espinosa said Nissan briefly considered a merger with Japanese rival Honda, and he would consider investing from other companies, including other automakers and technology companies. However, he added that Nissan hopes to "not be hostage to any partner."

Factory closures will surely end Nissan hopes to be one of the world's largest automakers. The path was set by the company's CEO Carlos Ghosn until he started a sensation in 2018.

Espinosa said Nissan's "basic problem" began in 2015, and under Ghosn's leadership, the company aims to produce 8 million units a year. It manages 3.1 million vehicles in 2024.

Although Espinosa said it had no intention of closing its UK factory, he said the company needed government support, especially in terms of energy costs, which is much higher than its neighbors.

Automakers around the world have been lobbying the government for support by subsidizing or relaxing regulations.

Appearing at the same Financial Times meeting, Carmakers Stellantis and Renault chiefs called on the EU to allow them to sell plug-in hybrid cars for longer. Hybrids combine smaller batteries with contaminated gasoline engines, which is more profitable for traditional automakers.

Renault CEO Luca de Meo said he wanted to shift from targeting zero exhaust emissions to looking at emissions throughout his life, which he believes will favor hybrids.