Nissan’s Chinese battery supplier Envision AESC will invest £450 million to build the battery plant that will power up to 100,000 Nissan electric vehicles per year
Japanese auto giant Nissan on Thursday announced plans to build the UK’s first car-battery gigafactory, where it will build a new electric vehicle.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the post-Brexit investment totalling £1.0 billion ($1.4 billion), which is set to create 6,200 jobs, as a major vote of confidence in the UK.
Nissan’s Chinese battery supplier Envision AESC will invest £450 million to build the battery plant that will be run on renewable energy and power up to 100,000 Nissan electric vehicles per year.
The facility, which will be built next to Nissan’s largest European factory in Sunderland, was hailed as key to the UK’s transition away from fossil fuel vehicles.
The news comes just days after Nissan’s French partner Renault unveiled plans for a Chinese-owned battery factory in France on Monday, as global carmakers race to meet booming demand for greener transport and governments target net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Nissan is to spend up to £423 million on an all-electric vehicle, while Sunderland City Council will help to bring the total amount of investment up to £1.0 billion.
This is a landmark day for Nissan, our partners, the UK and the automotive industry as a whole, Nissan’s Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta said at the unveiling of the EV36Zero project in Sunderland.
Nissan, which had warned that a no-deal Brexit would threaten its 35-year-old Sunderland factory, said the new investment represents 6,200 jobs at the Japanese group and its UK suppliers.
There will be 900 new Nissan jobs and 750 new Envision AESC jobs.
This is a huge step forward in our ambition to put the UK at the front of the global electric vehicle race, said UK Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.
The cars made in this plant, using batteries made just down the road at the UK’s first at scale gigafactory, will have a huge role to play as we transition away from petrol and diesel cars, he added.