The closure of the Nissan Motor manufacturing plant in Barcelona, Spain, could cost the automaker as much as EUR1.5bn, according to a Reuters report citing a local labour union source.

Last week Nissan formally announced, what many in the industry had expected for a while, it would close its vehicle manufacturing plant in Barcelona as part of a global restructuring plan designed to cut costs and return the company to profitability.

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The plant employs over 3,000 people, with more working in the supply chain and supporting services.

The announcement, which triggered protests by workers, followed the release of Nissan's fiscal 2019 results – for the year ending 31 March 2020 – in which it incurred a net loss of JPY671.2bn (US6.2bn).

The closure would leave the Sunderland plant in the UK as the automaker's main vehicle production operation in Europe.

Nissan has not formally commented on its plant closure costs but the subject has been hotly debated in Spain where the government claims it would be cheaper for the company to keep the plant open.

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The government said it would do all it can to convince the automaker to reverse its decision.

La Vanguardia, a Barcelona newspaper, cited Nissan documents as saying the closure could cost up to EUR1.45bn – mostly to cover personnel redundancy costs.

Another source reportedly claimed a Nissan executive told staff on the day of the shutdown announcement that the closure cost would be much lower – at around EUR700-800m.

But this is seen by some as insufficient to cover the huge redundancy costs, with many workers having been employed at the plant for more than 20 years.