Nissan will build an all-electric version of its best-selling models, the Qashqai and Juke, in its Sunderland factory in the UK. The news first brought by British free-to-air television news channel Sky News was confirmed by Nissan on Friday.

New is the announcement that to have enough batteries, Nissan’s EV36Zero hub will require a third gigafactory to support the UK’s biggest car plant in Sunderland. In total, a £ 3 billion (€3,455 billion) investment is needed to directly support the 7.000 people working for Nissan in the UK and 30.000 at suppliers.

This results after months of talks with the government, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt involved. As is said now, Nissan would invest ‘hundreds of millions’ or even three billion pounds in exchange for “a significant government funding guarantee.”

On Wednesday, Jeremy Hunt told the media that the government would invest £4,5 billion into British manufacturing starting in 2025 and distribute it across various sectors, including automotive and clean energy. News that Nissan and Toyota welcomed. Premier Sunak said Nissan’s investment would make the Sunderland factory the “UK’s Silicon Valley for electric vehicle innovation and manufacturing.”

Employing 6 000 people

In its Sunderland factory, Nissan employs about 6 000 people, building Juke and Qashqai models and the electric Leaf. The factory dates back to 1984 when the British government lent a helping hand, offering the 3,2 square km of land at the former Sunderland RAF Airfield at agricultural prices of around £1 800 per acre.

The factory opened in 1986, and 70% of the vehicles built in Sunderland were since exported to the EU, 22% destined for the UK, and 8% for export outside the EU. It has two production lines, one building Qashqai and Leaf, the other Qashqai and Juke.

Existence regularly questioned

However, the existence of Nissan’s British production site has been regularly questioned in the months after the Brexit in February 2020. A year later, the Japanese manufacturer announced that the assembly plant would be preserved and that there would be an expansion in battery production.

The latter resulted from Great Britain making a last-minute trade agreement with Europe that it could benefit from a 0% import tariff on EU imports, on condition that 55% of a product’s added value must have been realized within the UK or EU.

Going fully electric by 2030

According to a new plan unveiled in September, Nissan wants to sell only fully electric cars and no hybrids anymore in Europe from 2030 onward, thus following the path of its alliance partner Renault, which already set this goal at the beginning of 2022.

“EV is the ultimate mobility solution. More than a million customers have joined our journey and experienced the fun of a Nissan electric vehicle. There is no turning back now,” said Makoto Uchida, President and CEO of Nissan at that time.

Then it was said that two new Nissan electric vehicles were confirmed for Europe: the first is the new electric crossover model to succeed the Leaf, based on the Alliance platform CMF-EV, which is also used for the Nissan Ariya and Renault Mégane E-Tech Electric. And an all-electric successor to the Micra that will share powertrain technology with the upcoming Renault 5 Electric.

Juke and Qashqai finally becoming real EVs

It now adds two top-rated models, the Juke and the Qashqai. The latter was officially announced as the UK’s favorite car of 2022 and the first British-built model to top the annual sales charts for 24 years, with 42 704 units sold. Since the start in 2007, 3,8 million Qashqais have been built in Sunderland at the end of 2022.

Meanwhile, more than 650 000 Nissan Leaf models have been sold since its launch over 12 years ago. It was seen as the forerunner in the EV market and was the best-selling electric vehicle for a long time.

The new Qashqai e-Power, Nissan launched recently, is a different kind of hybrid. It is not a fully electric EV, nor a plug-in hybrid you can charge at home, but an electric car with a nearly permanently running generator on fossil fuel.

The Nissan Juke Hybrid is identical to the Renault Captur E-Tech Hybrid, only set up accordingly. This HEV is a marriage of a 1.6-liter gasoline engine (92 hp) and a small 1.2 kWh battery pack with a 48 hp electric motor.