SUNDERLAND, U.K. – Nissan marks its 30th year of U.K. car production as its Sunderland facility sets a single-year record.
Sunderland built 507,430 vehicles in 2016, beating the 2014 record of 500,238. Last year’s highlights included record volumes of the all-electric Leaf and the second-generation Qashqai CUV, which is being built on both production lines.
Total volume at the plant is approaching 9 million units since the first car was produced in 1986.
“Britain is now home to Nissan’s best-selling and most technologically advanced models in Europe, covering our market-leading crossover range, the world’s best-selling electric vehicle and two premium models for global export,” says Kevin Fitzpatrick, Nissan divisional vice president-European manufacturing.
“This has been achieved through hard work, innovative thinking, ingenuity and strong partnerships with forward-thinking local companies. With future models secured and new facilities in development, congratulations to all of my colleagues in Sunderland and across the U.K. on another great year.”
Following the production launch of the Infiniti Q30 in late 2015, Nissan last year began building a second Infiniti model, the QX30, for global markets in 2016 – the first year in which vehicles were exported from Sunderland to the U.S. and China.
In keeping with the automaker’s environmental stewardship, renewable energy accounts for 7% of Sunderland’s electricity requirements thanks to the installation of 19,000 solar panels alongside the plant’s 10 wind turbines.
New facilities under development at Sunderland include a £37 million ($46 million) extra-large press line operational in a few weeks. Other investments slated for this year include £22 million ($28 million) to expand Qashqai capacity and £26.5 million ($33.2 million) in manufacturing a future generation of electric-vehicle batteries.
