Nissan Invests In Sunderland Plant For Battery Production

Nissan’s UK facility in Sunderland is the largest one of its kind

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by Cristian Gnaticov

January 22, 2016 at 11:12

Nissan’s UK facility in Sunderland is the largest one of its kind in Europe and one of just three owned globally by the Japanese automaker.

Bolstered by a £420 million ($595 million) investment in 2013, it produces batteries for the Leaf and e-NV200 electric van and supports more than 2,000 jobs, both at Nissan and within the supply chain.

Now, a £26.5 million ($37,5 million) investment aims to bolster its production and safeguard 300 skilled jobs in maintenance, engineering and manufacturing at the facility.

The company is already the global leader in electric vehicles, with more than 200,000 units of the Leaf sold globally, which have covered a total of two billion electric miles (3.2 billion km). In 2015 alone, 43,651 units were delivered, 15,630 of them in Europe.

This year, Nissan will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Sunderland plant and the 10th anniversary of the St. Petersburg one in Russia. The “eastern” facility produced its 200,000th vehicle in 2015, which made it the fastest growing plant in the country.