The travails of Nissan and Seat in the Barcelona region help to illustrate how the global motor industry has suffered from the worldwide recession – but also how the downturn is rapidly obliging carmakers to adapt to new environmental and economic conditions.

Nissan of Japan invested in its plant near the port at the start of a 1980s drive to globalise operations – it went on to invest in the US and the UK – and took advantage of Barcelona’s strategic position in southern Europe and the low cost at that time of Spanish labour.