Nissan’s Sunderland factory will now make electric Jukes and Qashqais

Big news for the British car industry this morning: Nissan has confirmed three fully electric cars will roll off the production line of its humongous Sunderland plant in the years to come, including all-electric Jukes and Qashqais. This in turn means the £1bn investment previously pledged into both its car factory and EV36Zero battery production hub could now swell to £3bn.

Both car and battery manufacturing will be powered by wind and solar farms so that Nissan and its myriad local suppliers – together employing 30,000 north-eastern folk – could be fed by 100 per cent renewable electricity.

The three cars in question are the next generations of Leaf, Juke and Qashqai, with the latter pair the crux of today’s tickertape parade as their future iterations switch to fully electric powertrains. It’s all thanks to Nissan’s recent pledge to stop internal combustion engine sales in Europe by 2030, five years ahead of recently shifted government targets. Indeed, every single all-new Nissan launched in Europe will take its power entirely from the plug.

The cars themselves ought to be pretty striking, too, today’s announcement confirming they’ll be respectively inspired by the Chill-Out, Hyper Punk, and Hyper Urban concepts (pictured above).

"Exciting, electric vehicles are at the heart of our plans to achieve carbon neutrality," said Nissan boss Makoto Uchida, on hand in Sunderland to mark the announcement. "With electric versions of our core European models on the way, we are accelerating towards a new era for Nissan, for industry and for our customers.

"The EV36Zero project puts our Sunderland plant, Britain’s biggest ever car factory, at the heart of our future vision. It means our UK team will be designing, engineering and manufacturing the vehicles of the future, driving us towards an all-electric future for Nissan in Europe."

Naturally the UK government is bristling with joy at some positive industry news too, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declaring Nissan’s investment "a massive vote of confidence in the UK’s automotive industry" and one that’ll "secure Sunderland’s future as the UK’s Silicon Valley for electric vehicle innovation and manufacturing". Nissan has confirmed that none of the £3bn announced today comes from government support.

The announcement comes as a new Investment Zone is confirmed for the wider north-east region, though, while the government has also brought £15m of funding to a £30m collaborative project led by Nissan to bolster the technical expertise of its Technical Centre in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, all with the aim of boosting EV development. The Juke and Qashqai are famously UK designed, engineered and manufactured, a tradition their replacements may continue.

This does confirm that a production version of the delightful Nissan 20-23 concept will be made outside of Britain. The cute K11 and K12 Micras it pays homage to are firmly in the Sunderland plant hall of fame, but today’s news leaves no room for a comeback on Wearside.

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