Nissan had previously said that a new factory to manufacture lithium-ion batteries, which the Leaf runs on, would be sited in Sunderland.
However, it was by no means certain that the car itself would also be built there. Fears that Nissan would select a location outside of the UK had intensified, after it lost out to BMW in the deal to provide a car fleet for the 2012 London Olympics.
The Sunderland plant’s reputation for efficiency will have helped enormously in overcoming that apparent snub. A £20.7 million grant from the UK government, together with £197.3 million from the European Investment Bank, probably made the decision easier too.
Nissan though has been keen to emphasise that the UK’s environmental policies were also an important factor, especially regarding the setting up of a charging infrastructure for electric cars. The recently announced OLEV Plug-in Car Grant (see this post) would doubtless also have been influential.
UK sales of the Leaf are planned to start in early 2011, although cars will initially come from Nissan’s Oppama plant in Japan until Sunderland production commences in 2013.
Around 50,000 Leafs will be built each year at Sunderland for European markets, alongside the Juke and Qashqai crossovers and Note hatchback. Manufacture of the next generation Micra is to move to Chennai in India.
Together with a third factory in Smyrna, Tennessee, total global Leaf production is expected to reach 200,000 units annually.
