A few months after Infiniti backed out of a plan to have Magna Steyr contract-manufacture its first ever premium compact model in Austria, the Japanese automaker said on Wednesday it has decided to build the car in the UK.
Production will take place at Nissan’s Sunderland manufacturing facility and is scheduled to begin in 2015. Infiniti said it will be the first new car brand to be manufactured in the UK on this scale in 23 years.
While Infiniti has yet to show us the production version of the as-of-yet unnamed compact model with which it will compete against the likes of the Audi A3, BMW 1-Series and Mercedes-Benz A-Class, it has previewed it with the Etherea concept.
The Infiniti model will likely be based on Mercedes-Benz’s MFA modular architecture that also underpins the A-Class, as part of a broader partnership between the Renault-Nissan Group and Daimler.
The Japanese carmaker said it will invest around £250 million (US$407 million or €307 million) into the Sunderland facility to build the car at an annual rate of around 60,000 units. The move is expected to create an additional 1,000 jobs across the UK, including 280 new jobs at the Sunderland Plant.
“This milestone, our first premium product to be manufactured at Sunderland, reconfirms our commitment to UK manufacturing and the ongoing success of the plant, which is moving up the value chain,” stated Colin Dodge, Nissan’s Chief Performance Officer.
“Just as important, the new Infiniti, which will be exported around the world, is being developed with help from our London design centre and our European Technical Centre at Cranfield,” he added.
The decision to build Infiniti’s compact car in the UK will come at the expense of Nissan’s upcoming C-segment hatchback with which it plans to rival the VW Golf.
“Because of capacity limitations at Sunderland, securing the new Infiniti will mean that a C-segment hatchback previously announced for the plant in April will be manufactured elsewhere,” the company said in a statement adding that more details are to be announced next year.
INFINITI ETHEREA CONCEPT 
