Nissan has more good news for the UK motor industry.
Following on from Bentley’s announcement of strong global sales growth in 2011, Nissan have broken a string of UK car manufacturing records.
Nissan’s Sunderland plant celebrated its 25th anniversary in style with much increased production and bright prospects going into 2012.
New UK Production records
In 2011 Nissan smashed its own record, producing over 480,485 vehicles.
This is a dramatic increase on 2010, when Nissan’s Sunderland plant made 423,262 cars, the first time that a UK car factory produced more than 400,000 vehicles in a year.
The old record was beaten on November 16, owing to the high demand for Nissan’s popular Qashqai and Juke models.
November itself is going down as Nissan’s most productive month ever with a staggering 46,606 cars flying off production lines.
The success of the Nissan plant is due to its strong performance in the crossover car sector. The leading model was the award-winning Nissan Qashqai (244,298), followed by the sporty Nissan Juke (132, 606) and the Qashqai+2 (56,979).
The Sunderland plant also produced almost 50,000 of the award-winning Nissan Note hatchback.
Production line firsts
2011 was a year of many firsts for Nissan production.
It was the first full year of 24-hour production at the plant, with Nissan Qashqai’s being built day and night to meet demand.
2011 was also the first full year that the Nissan Juke, including the new 4×4 Juke and limited edition Juke Kiro, was manufactured.
Employment boost
The Sunderland plant took on new staff in 2011, bringing the number of employees on site to a record breaking 5,462.
Nissan’s newest team members helped them produce enough volume to achieve a 4.2% share of the European market, yet another record.
An exciting future
Senior Nissan UK executive, Kevin Fitzpatrick, praised the staff and said how proud he was to achieve so many milestones in a single year.
Nissan is looking forward to extending their production in the UK.
In 2012 the Sunderland plant will become their first factory to make lithium-ion batteries outside of Japan. This is in anticipation of Nissan LEAF production in 2013.
Pictures of all these cars to follow.
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