Nissan reveals electric car plans for Sunderland plant

Mar 18 2010 By Adrian Pearson, The Journal

Highs and lows of Nissan

THE last two years have seen Nissan go from announcing massive redundancies to rebuilding itself as the driving force behind the North East economy.

In December 2008 Nissan bosses broke their devastating decision to partially suspended work at their North East plant.

The firm halted Qashqai production for three weeks after industry figures showed a 40% year-on-year drop in sales of Nissan cars.

Within days it became apparent that temporary staff would not have contracts renewed and business in the supply chain prepared for more bad news.

By January plans to axe 1,200 jobs were confirmed and the future looked bleak.

But behind the scenes work started on turning one of Nissan’s most productive factories into a future location for green car production.

In March Business Secretary Peter Mandelson came to Sunderland to sign a memorandum of understanding which committed the Government and development agency One North East to working with Nissan in bringing forward jobs in the low-carbon sector.

In May Nissan announced its job losses would not involve any compulsory redundancies.

By June the North East has been selected as one of eight UK regions to take part in trials, which will include electric taxis a minibus and cars. From summer onwards One North East took the lead on efforts to roll out electric charging points across the region. Collaborations with Tesco, British Gas, Capital Shopping Centres, CE Electric UK and the AA meant more than 750 were promised in the first wave.

Then in July the biggest indication of what was to come was made when Nissan announced a £200m investment in its Washington factory that will allow it to produce batteries for electric cars.

As part of the plans for a low carbon economic area, a training centre will be set up to specialise in the manufacture and maintenance of the environmentally-friendly vehicles.