Japanese carmaker Nissan is planning to invest EUR130m at its Barcelona manufacturing facility in Spain, to build a new passenger car model.
Production of the new compact family car is scheduled to start in July 2014 at the Spanish facility, where the company aims to produce 80,000 units of the new car annually.
Reuters cited Nissan Motor Iberica director general Frank Torres as saying that the investment follows the signing of the competitiveness agreement recently.
"In coming years, the Barcelona plant will work at full capacity, with annual production of over 200,000 units ... Taking into account the current crisis, this is not just an achievement for Nissan but for industry in Spain," Torres added.
Of the total investment, Nissan is planning to spend about EUR20m towards manufacturing 24,000 of its one ton Pick Up model per year, in addition to transmissions for electric vehicles including the LEAF and eNV200 models.
Further, the company is planning to halt the production of industrial vehicles and 4x4s in Barcelona over sales being affected by euro zone debt crisis, however, the carmaker exports about 80% of the cars produced in Barcelona.
The Spanish government has launched a car subsidy program to strengthen the recession hit market.
