Nissan’s plant at Sunderland, England has just turned 25.
The British assembly plant currently supplies the Nissan Dualis and Micra models sold by Nissan Australia (and also the first Micra models sold here in the 1990s).
As well as the 5,000 people employed in Sunderland, Nissan runs its European Design Centre in Paddington, London (40 employees) and the Nissan European Technical Centre in Cranfield, Bedfordshire (500 employees).
Nissan has confirmed the next generation Dualis (Qashqai in Europe) will be designed, engineered and manufactured in England – a further investment of $5.1-billion. A battery plant to supply batteries for Nissan’s LEAF electric hatchback is also under construction in Sunderland, ahead of production start-up in 2013.
Amongst the plaudits coming to Nissan for the 25th anniversary and announcement of the new Dualis program, was this from British Prime Minister, David Cameron: “I welcome Nissan’s continued investment and the important role Nissan is playing in helping to rebalance our economy. With the design, development and manufacture of their next generation Qashqai (Dualis) all taking place in the UK, Nissan has restated its confidence in the skills of its British workforce and in the UK’s manufacturing sector.”
