Thousands of jobs at Nissan’s Sunderland factory have been safeguarded under a new £2billion plan to ramp-up electric car production.
The Japanese car giant will make electric versions to its Qashqai and Juke models at the plant in the North East. It will also make a successor to the current electric Leaf, which is already manufactured there.
Alongside an additional "gigafactory" to produce batteries for the cars, the total investment is put at £2billion. The Sunderland plant employs 6,000 people and supports 30,000 more in the UK supply chain. The £2billion of investment includes money from Nissan and gigafactory firm AESC.
Nissan refused to reveal how much taxpayer support had been provided. Alan Johnson, Nissan’s senior vice president of manufacturing and supply chain, told the BBC’s Today programme the UK "can be a competitive place for car production, but everything needs to be right".
He added: "Not just the plant itself, but the surrounding environment: energy costs, infrastructure, local government (and) national government support, needs to be right for it to work."
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "Nissan’s investment is a massive vote of confidence in the UK’s automotive industry, which already contributes a massive £7 billion a year to our economy. This venture will no doubt secure Sunderland’s future as the UK’s Silicon Valley for electric vehicle innovation and manufacturing."