Nissan Invests on Electric Cars Production in Sunderland

Nov 23, 2023 06:22 AM EST

White Electric Car — (Photo : Pexels/ Ed Harvey)

Nissan is going to commit a lot of money to its Sunderland plant. This will ensure the plant's security and keep 6,000 jobs. This Japanese automaker will discuss using the plant to build electric Qashqai and Juke models. With government assistance from the Automotive Transformation Fund, it will cost £1 billion. This decision is intended to reduce doubt over Nissan's UK plant's future.

Electric Versions

According to a report from Financial Times Nissan is planning to invest more than £1 billion in its UK plant in Sunderland, where it aims to create two new electric vehicles. These models are set to be the electric successors to the popular Qashqai and Juke models.
The decision to produce two new electric models at Nissan's Sunderland plant, potentially worth over £1 billion, was significantly influenced by financial support from the British government, which could run into hundreds of millions of pounds. It is expected that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will attend the announcement event alongside Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida. This investment and production commitment serve to underscore the company's dedication to electric mobility and the preservation of jobs in Sunderland.

It is also likely to preserve the 6,000-person facility and local supply chain jobs. Nissan wants to debut all-electric vehicles in Europe by the end of the decade, marking a turning point in the UK automotive industry's move from combustion engines to electrics.

Nissan began making electric Juke and Qashqai vehicles in the North East last year and plans to produce the Leaf's successor in Sunderland, BBC reports.

This moves positions Nissan as a significant beneficiary of the "full expensing" policy announced in the Autumn Statement, which allows businesses to offset 100% of their investments in new plant and machinery against profits. Moreover, the Chancellor's decision to make this tax relief permanent is expected to further bolster Nissan's position as a profitable manufacturer in the UK.

Sunderland Factory

According to the Guardian, The Sunderland plant in Britain is the largest car factory in the country, with the capacity to produce up to 600,000 cars annually. However, its production levels have declined in recent years due to challenges stemming from Brexit uncertainty, the COVID-19 pandemic, and supply chain disruptions. The plant manufactures petrol models such as the Qashqai and Juke, along with the electric Nissan Leaf. It sources batteries from a neighboring factory previously owned by Nissan but now operated by Chinese-owned AESC.

The AESC factory currently has a battery production capacity of approximately 2 gigawatt hours (GWh) annually. However, it is in the process of constructing larger facilities with the goal of reaching 9GWh production by 2024 and eventually expanding to 38GWh, enabling the production of around 600,000 car batteries per year. While Nissan had previously announced Sunderland as an electric vehicle hub in 2021, the specific models to be manufactured there have not been detailed thus far.

The Guardian also reported that Leaf, initially produced in Sunderland in 2010, was once a prominent electric car globally. Nevertheless, Nissan failed to capitalize on its early success, allowing other automakers to surpass it in the transition to electric vehicle technology.