Nissan “disappointed” over diesel emissions

NISSAN has maintained its innocence after being found guilty of cheating emissions on cars made in its Sunderland, UK facility

Nissan ‘more confident’ over future of UK plant

FEARS that Nissan’s Qashqai flagship model could leave the car-maker’s UK plant in the north-easy may have been eased after the company’s boss said he was “confident” the UK will remain a competitive place to do business.

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 halts UK sales to Russia

Nissan, after declaring Russia as one its top European area for sales, ahead of the UK, has frozen orders from the region..

Nissan just loves the Russian market

Nissan sold more cars to Russia than anywhere else in Europe last month, figures have revealed.

Nissan launches Pathfinder in Russia

Nissan has launched the Pathfinder range in Russia; it includes the first Russian manufactured petrol-electric hybrid. Next year, Nissan will add Qashqai to its Russian production line-up.

Pathfinder debuts alongside the new Russian-built Sentra sedan, reaffirming Nissan's commitment to bringing to market built in Russia, with Russian consumers in mind.

Press problems halt Nissan car output

CAR production has restarted at Nissan in Sunderland ending a temporary shut-down at one of the world's most efficient car plants, according to The Northern Echo.

Last Monday, according to the newspaper, car making on both lines were halted after problems emerged in the factory’s press shop.

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.

Nissan’s UK output to top 600,000

Nissan’s manufacturing plant in Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, has capacity to build over 600,000 vehicles, according to Trevor Mann, executive director of Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK, speaking today.

It is exactly 30 years since the agreement was signed by the Japanese vehicle builder and the UK Government to build the plant in the UK which has since become the biggest vehicle manufacturing plant in the country.

Last year the plant produced over 500,000 vehicles and has capacity to raise this by one-fifth.

The company employs over 6,500 people and this will to rise to over 7,000. The facility in Sunderland builds vehicles and engines.

A new Nissan model rolls off the production line today. The new vehicle, the second generation Qashqai, has helped create 500 new jobs at the Japanese car giant's UK plant in the coming months.

With this and other new models expected to be awarded to the UK plant, which is one of the jewels in Nissan’s worldwide manufacturing crown, will edge employment eventually to near the 8,000 mark.

Some 286,000 Qashqai cars were built last year, with production numbers expected to be similar in 2014. The car is Nissan's best-selling model in Europe.

Engineers at the Sunderland plant work closely with their counterparts at Nissan’s European Technical Centre (NETC) at Cranfield, Bedfordshire.

Eighty per cent of the output of the Sunderland plant is exported. ∎

Nissan UK tops plants, brands

In the UK, Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK at Washington on Tyneside produced the most vehicles in 2012 with an output of 510,572 units. It also made the most of any one single brand – 310,837 of its Qashqai model. In June, the plant will begin building the second-generation Leaf electric car.

The figures produced in the SMMT Motor Industry Facts 2013 of the ‘top five’ UK producers and brands, showed that Jaguar Land Rover held second position with 305,467 vehicles built, though in model ranking its Evoque brand came fourth with 112,331 units built. A new nine-speed automatic gearbox from ZF will be fitted first to Evoque models before spreading through the range.

The third highest output was recorded by BMW’s Mini plant at Oxford with 207,530 units built. The Mini brand came second behind Quasqai.

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.