The Qashqai and Juke were previously only available with internal combustion engines, but their successors will be fully electric. According to Autocar, both will also get bold new styling, drawing heavily on the Hyper Urban and Hyper Punk concept cars shown recently at the Tokyo Motor Show.
The investment in the Sunderland plant will be £2 billion, with £1.12 billion coming from Nissan and the rest from partners such as battery partner AESC. It is also understood that the funding will include significant government investment, although terms have not been disclosed.
The new plans for the Nissan plant build on the 2021 launch of the EV36Zero hub at the facility, which will now encompass the production of three electric vehicles – and will now include three battery gigafactories. The Sunderland site is currently home to production of the current petrol-engined Qashqai and Juke models, along with the second-gen Leaf EV.
Nissan had previously announced one electric car – a sleek new SUV that is now confirmed as the Leaf successor – would be built in Sunderland.
Nissan boss Makato Uchida said that “exciting, electric vehicles are at the heart of our plans to achieve carbon neutrality.”
He added: “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.”
Source: Autocar
