Nissan’s UK plant wins extra model

Nissan’s facility in Sunderland is set to manufacture a special edition Juke hatchbacks.

Nissan dumps UK production of Note

At Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK profit-per-car is all important in upholding the plant’s financial performance.

Qashqai Euro sales boost Nissan UK

Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK (NMMUK) claims its European vehicle sales hit 57,332 last month; higher than the 48,560 recorded in the same period last year.

Nissan refines Infiniti Q30 prototypes

A team from the North-East car firm Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK has travelled to Japan to refine prototypes of the Infiniti Q30 hatchback.

Production trials start next February ahead of the launch of car making in August, according to the Northern Echo.

LEAF more popular in UK than Japan

THE Sunderland-built Nissan LEAF is more popular with owners than the version built in Japan, the car maker's electric vehicle boss has told The Northern Echo in the UK on the anniversary of the hatchbacks debut.  

More than 13,000 LEAFs have been built at Nissan's North-East factory in the 12 months since the UK Prime Minister formally set the production line rolling.

Vauxhall Motors on a roll

Vauxhall Motors is set to overtake take Ford Motor Company in the UK car retail business, according to a report in the Mail on Sunday.

Duncan Aldred, chairman and managing director of Vauxhall Motors, is reported as saying: We will be overtaking Ford by 2016. Just after the middle of the decade I expect us to be number one. So I have very high hopes for the Vauxhall brand in the UK. Our mission is to get Vauxhall right to the very top.”

Ford appears undaunted by the claims, noting “Vauxhall has always been feisty, but it’s been saying this kind of thing for 10 years.”

Nissan sales reach record high

Nissan Motor Company’s results for the year ending 31 March 2013 were: net revenue: JPY 9.63 trillion (US$ 116.16 billion, €90.17 billion); operating profit of JPY 523.5 billion (US$ 6.31 billion, €4.90 billion); ordinary profit of JPY 529.3 billion (US$ 6.38 billion, €4.96 billion); and net income of JPY 342.4 billion (US$ 4.13 billion, €3.21 billion).

In FY2012, global sales reached a record-high of 4.914 million units, up 1.4% over FY2011.  Ten new models were launched to global markets, including the new Altima in the US; Sylphy in China; and the Note in Japan.

Carlos Ghosn, Nissan president and chief executive officer, said: "Fiscal 2012 was marked by both successes and challenges for Nissan. We ended the year with a sound balance sheet, record global sales, an improved brand, and an expanded presence in critical growth markets.”

Nissan Etherea set for UK

Nissan is investing £250 million in manufacturing facilities at its site in Washington, Sunderland, to build the new Infiniti Etherea hatchback from next year.

The project will create an extra 1,000 jobs in the UK, including some 280 in the North-East. The Etherea is seen by Nissan as competition for the Audi A3 and the BMW 1-Series.

Etherea will be manufactured only in Sunderland and production, when it gathers momentum, is expected to hit at least 60,000 a year. Additional contributions will come from Nissan’s London design centre as well as the Nissan European Technical Centre (NETC) at Cranfield, Bedfordshire, which also handles design work as well as component and vehicle development.

Nissan’s Infiniti ‘luxury’ brand is the equivalent of Toyota’s Lexus.