Nissan Leaf production in the UK receives £190m investment boost
Wed 09 November 2011
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The European Investment Bank has announced that it is supporting the production of the Nissan Leaf electric car in Sunderland with an investment injection of £190 million. The funding will go towards both the production of the Nissan Leaf and the lithium-ion batteries used in the vehicle.
The Sunderland plant is the only Leaf production plant in Europe. It is hoped the plant will both safeguard existing jobs and create new opportunities in the North East region.
The EIB investment is in addition to a £420 million investment by Nissan in its Sunderland plant and £20.7 million by the UK Government. The total investment will maintain about 2,250 jobs at Nissan and across the UK supply chain. The all-electric Nissan Leaf will go into production in Sunderland in 2013 with an initial production capacity of around 50,000 vehicles a year.
Trevor Mann, Nissan Europe Senior Vice President for Manufacturing, said: “We are all very excited about battery and LEAF production beginning at Sunderland for our European market. We are extremely grateful for this support from the European Investment Bank, who share our vision and commitment for the roll-out of zero-emission transport”.
However, despite a Government grant of up to £5k per electric vehicle purchase, take-up of EVs has proved sluggish with figures released in October showing fewer than 800 vehicles have been sold so far through the plug-in car grant.
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