Japanese car maker Mitsubishi has announced the closure of its only European plant – in Holland – with the potential loss of 15,000 jobs in the Dutch city of Born.

While many car manufacturers in Europe have announced good profit results for 2011, evidently not all brands are having such a great time of it. The key reason for the failure of the Dutch manufacturing site, which was set up by the Dutch government, Volvo and Mitsubishi, but bought out by the Japanese firm in 2001, is that sales of the Colt and Outlander models have been rather poor in Europe.

Other car plants had the luxury of building cars for the Chinese and Indian markets, where sales of various cars – especially high end cars such as Rolls Royce and Jaguar – have been good. But NedCar, as the manufacturing facility is known, was set up to manufacture Mitsubishis solely for the European market; Mitsubishi’s other plants make cars for emerging markets such as China.

The news comes as Mitsubishi begin setting up a new plant in Thailand.

Sadly there’s no such thing as short term European cover – let alone long term – to protect against poor economic conditions on the European continent. It is indeed a shame to see the Dutch plant go, as the setting up of such a project took many years and a great deal of effort to set up. The resultant job losses, however, will cause the biggest problems.