11:27 pm, January 5, 2012
NISSAN’S Sunderland plant have capped their 25th anniversary year in style with a string of new UK car industry records.
In 2011 the plant made a total of 480,485 vehicles, beating the 2010 total of 423,262 vehicles, which itself was the first time any UK car plant had ever made more than 400,000 cars in one year.
Production totals of its top-selling models Qashqai were 244,298 units, Qashqai+2 – 56,979, and Juke recorded 132,606 units. In addition the plant made 46,602 units of the Nissan Note.
This new record reflects the first full calendar year in which there has been 24-hour production of the Qashqai and Qashqai+2 and was also the first full year of Juke production, which included the addition of a 4×4 Juke and the limited edition Juke Kuro.
Additionally, extra staff were hired at the plant to help meet the customer demand which led to Nissan achieving an all-time record European market share of 4.2 per cent in September.
The number of jobs at the plant also reached an all-time high with 5,462 people directly employed on site.
Nissan’s vice president for manufacturing in the UK, Kevin Fitzpatrick, said: ‘Our 25th anniversary year will go down in UK car production history and all our staff can be proud of the many milestones we have passed.
‘Our 26th year promises to be equally exciting, as we launch the new battery plant at Sunderland and prepare the plant for production of the 100 per cent electric Nissan Leaf alongside the Qashqai, Juke and Note.’
