News story: Nissan triples investment in electric vehicle production in the UK
Car manufacturing giant Nissan to manufacture two new electric vehicle
models and expand North East electric vehicle hub in
Sunderland.
Deal is expected to support thousands of jobs and
delivers on PM’s priority to grow the economy.
Comes as PM
hosts Global Investment Summit next week which is expected to deliver
billions more investment into the UK.
Nissan is delivering up
to £2 billion of new investment to produce two new electric vehicle
models in Sunderland - helping to put more zero emission vehicles on
UK roads which will make travel more sustainable and affordable in the
long term, the Prime Minister has announced today (Friday 24
November).
Nissan have said their direct investment of up to
£1. 12 billion to produce the two models will enable wider investment
in infrastructure projects and the supply chain, including a new
gigafactory, bringing a total new investment today of up to £2
billion.
This builds on the £1 billion electric vehicle hub
announced by Nissan and their battery partner AESC in 2021, and brings
total investment since 2021 to £3 billion, safeguarding the future of
Britain’s largest car factory as we move away from petrol and diesel
cars.
Today’s announcement doubles down on this with all-
electric replacements for the Nissan Juke and Qashqai models in
addition to the all-electric Leaf replacement announced in 2021,
supporting the future of Nissan’s highly skilled 7,000 strong UK
workforce as well as the 30,000 staff employed in the wider supply
chain.
This investment further cements the UK’s position as a
global leader in Electric Vehicle manufacturing, delivers on the Prime
Minister’s priority of growing the economy and drives forward the UK’s
commitment to net zero.
The Nissan Sunderland plant is a
longstanding UK success story, having opened in 1986 and grown into
one of Europe’s largest car plants with world leading productivity.
Earlier this year, Nissan marked the milestone of building their 11
millionth vehicle at the Sunderland Plant since production started –
meaning that, on average, a new car has been produced at the plant
every two minutes, every hour of every day, for 37 years.
Today’s investment takes the total Nissan investment in the UK
past £6 billion and follows Nissan’s confirmation that all its new
cars in Europe from now will be fully electric, with its passenger
cars across Europe expected to be 100% electric by 2030.
In
addition, today we have confirmed £15 million funding has been awarded
for a £30m collaborative project led by Nissan. It will strengthen the
technical expertise and R&D; zero emission vehicle capability of the
Nissan Technical Centre (NTCE) in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, increasing
opportunities for securing additional UK R&D; investment in future
vehicle models.
It comes ahead of the Global Investment
Summit next week, where the Prime Minister is expected to host over
200 of the worlds CEOs and financiers - including the CEO of Nissan
Makoto Uchida - to showcase the UK as world leading place to invest.
The summit is expected to raise billions of pounds of high
value investment to create thousands of jobs across the UK, with a
special focus on high tech sectors such as innovation, research and
development. 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 £71 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.
Making the UK the best place to do business is
at the heart of our economic plan. We will continue to back businesses
like Nissan to expand and grow their roots in the UK every step of the
way as we make the right long term decisions for a brighter
future.
Nissan President and CEO Makoto Uchida
said:
Exciting, electric vehicles are at the heart of our
plans to achieve carbon neutrality. 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.
Today’s announcement comes as a new Investment Zone was
confirmed for North East England which is expected to create more than
4,000 new jobs over the first five years and leverage significant
private investment including the new £2 billion investment announced
today by Nissan.
Focusing on Advanced Manufacturing and Green
Industries, the Investment Zone builds on the region’s key growth
corridor the Arc of Innovation which runs from Northumberland down to
Sunderland and Durham with opportunities along the Tyne Corridor and
benefits felt across the wider region.
Nissan’s announcement
today will provide a key anchor investment for the Investment Zone,
which will provide £160 million of support including tax incentives,
skills, development infrastructure and innovation funding over the
next ten years – addressing barriers to growth, strengthening the
local area and ensuring that the UK continues to win investment in the
face of global competition.
At the Autumn Statement, the
Chancellor announced further measures to back businesses and remove
barriers to investment. This includes making the Full Expensing scheme
permanent so businesses can invest for less – delivering an effective
permanent tax cut of £11 billion a year for businesses who invest in
IT equipment, plant and machinery. The move is set to boost business
investment by £14 billion and help grow the economy.
With the
tax cut now permanent, the UK will continue to have both the lowest
headline corporation tax rate in the G7 and the most generous capital
allowances in the OECD group of major advanced economies, such as the
United States, Japan, South Korea and Germany. Since the introduction
of the super deduction – the predecessor to full expensing – in 2021,
investment in the UK has grown the fastest in the G7. Chancellor of
the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said:
Today’s news is an enormous
vote of confidence in the British economy, just days after we
confirmed the most generous investment tax reliefs in the Western
world.
Nissan has a proud history in car manufacturing in
Sunderland and their continued commitment to the UK shows how our
support for business is getting results – helping create thousands of
jobs and solidifying Britain’s place as the world’s 8th largest
manufacturer.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said:
The
investment by Nissan in Sunderland shows once again that the
Government’s plan for the automotive sector is working.
The
forthcoming Advanced Manufacturing Plan will build on this deal and
other recent big investment wins for the UK car industry, helping to
support thousands of jobs and drive growth across the UK.
The
automotive industry has a long, proud history in the UK, and a bright
future. Supporting over 166,000 jobs and contributing £71 billion to
our economy, it is integral to delivering on levelling up, net zero
and helping to drive economic growth.
This announcement also
follows other automotive success stories including Tata’s investment
of over £4bn in a new 40 GWh gigafactory, BMW’s investment of £600m to
build next generation MINI EVs in Oxford, Ford’s investment of £380
million in Halewood to make Electric Drive Units and Stellantis’ £100m
investment in Ellesmere Port for EV van production.
Last
week, the Chancellor announced that we’re making available £4. 5
billion in strategic manufacturing sectors across the UK to unlock
investment, support levelling up and enable the UK to seize growth
opportunities through the transition to net zero. This includes making
over £2 billion available to the automotive sector from 2025 for five
years to support the manufacturing and development of zero emission
vehicles, their batteries and supply chain - building on existing
support.
The UK has already overtaken France to become the
eighth-biggest manufacturing nation in the world in the most recent
data. Taken together, our manufacturing industries now contribute £205
billion to the economy and are boosting employment in every region of
the country, including over 300,000 jobs both in the North West and
Yorkshire and The Humber.
The Business and Trade Secretary is
also set to announce the publication of the government’s Advanced
Manufacturing Plan which will set out our comprehensive offer to the
UK’s manufacturing sector to continue to boost long term
sustainability and prosperity.
The Department for Business
and Trade will also shortly publish the UK’s first Battery Strategy,
outlining the Government’s activity to achieve a globally competitive
battery supply chain in the UK by 2030 that supports economic
prosperity and the Net Zero transition.