Government invests £50m in new factory that will create 183 jobs
A new plant that will build powertrains for Nissan’s next-generation electric vehicles, including successors to the Leaf, Quashqai and Juke, will be built at its Sunderland site.
Operated by Japan Automatic Transmission Company (JATCO), a firm majority owned by Nissan and which already produces transmissions for other car makers including Renault, the new factory will directly create 183 new jobs, with an additional 400 claimed to be made throughout the wider supply chain.
The news comes as Nissan and JATCO agreed an investment deal with the UK government, with Westminster pumping £50 million into the project as part of a push “to build a globally competitive electric vehicle supply chain,” said trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds.
He added: “Not only will this boost our thriving auto industry, but it will help secure hundreds of jobs across the North East.”
The site is JATCO’s first in Europe, and so represents a massive coup for the UK, said Reynolds, adding it was “a massive vote of confidence in the UK economy and this government’s plans to make Britain the destination of choice for investment”.
The new cash injection arrives on top of the £2 billion Nissan and its partners had already pledged – and already begun spending – on upgrading its Sunderland site, a project called EV36Zero, in order to accommodate the building on its new wave of electric vehicles.
This includes the construction of a second battery factory next door to supply batteries for the next Leaf, and a third gigafactory also planned nearby, both of which will be run by Nissan’s Chinese partner, Envision.
Speaking about the investment for the new powertrains plant, Alan Johnson, senior vice president, manufacturing, supply chain and purchasing for Nissan, said: “This is a fantastic step forward for our world-first EV36Zero plan.
“Welcoming a key supplier to the North East of England provides a big boost to the efficiency of our supply chain. We look forward to continuing our long and successful partnership as we push towards our electric future.” Tomoyoshi Sato, CEO of JATCO, added: “I am very grateful for the support of the UK Government, Sunderland City Council, and all others involved in the establishment of JATCO UK, and look forward to supporting Nissan’s EV36Zero project with our electric powertrains.”
The transformation of the Sunderland site also includes work within the factory, such as the converting of production lines to accommodate electric vehicles.
The first car expected to run down it is the new Leaf, the iconic EV morphoring from hatchback to crossover. This is likely to begin as early as March, Autocar understands, given testing began in the middle of 2024. Elsewhere with the factory, the former Leaf battery assembly line is being converted for the next-generation and electric-only Juke, due in around 2027 – around the same time as the also-electric-only new Qashqai.
Nissan is also ramping up efforts to source renewable energy locally. Currently, 20% of the factory’s energy usage – which totals around 350MWh a week – comes from on-site wind and solar farms. The firm wants to boost this to 100%, but has not given a timeframe for achieving that.
Training the factory’s 6000 staff for EV production is another important strand of the investment package, as is recruiting more personnel to cope with a drastic rise in the number of cars built at Sunderland. Projections suggest the plant’s 300,000-unit annual output could double when the new EVs come on stream.
However, these plans could be somewhat hit given Nissan announced in November it planned to cut 9000 jobs from its global workforce, and slash production by 20% to five millions units per year as part of heavy cost-cutting measures. Nissan UK told Autocar that final decisions on where jobs would be cut had not yet been made.
Source: Autocar
