£188m boost for Nissan LEAF plant in Sunderland
Green investment news - by GreenWise staff
11th November 2011
A €220 million (£188 million) investment has been secured from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the manufacturer of the Nissan LEAF electric car in Sunderland.
The
EIB investment, which was earmarked last year, was officially signed over this week at
Nissan’s Sunderland plant where production of the
LEAF is due to begin in 2013. It will also go towards Nissan’s new lithium-ion battery plant in the North East, which will begin production early next year.
"New Nissan investment to produce the Nissan LEAF model demonstrates the commercial emergence of electric vehicles from research intensive concept cars," Simon Brooks, EIB vice president for the UK, said. "The European Investment Bank is committed to supporting competitive electric vehicle and battery technology that can contribute to improving air quality and tackling climate change."
The EIB investment is in addition to a £420 million investment by Nissan in its Sunderland plant and £20.7 million by the UK Government. The total investment will maintain about 2,250 jobs at Nissan and across the UK supply chain.
"The Nissan LEAF has already made history as the world’s first affordable, mass-market, pure-electric vehicle and we are all very excited about battery and LEAF production beginning at Sunderland for our European market," Trevor Mann, Nissan Europe senior vice president for Manufacturing, said.
LEAF production
Nissan plans to initially produce around 50,000 LEAFs a year in the UK, making Britain the third global manufacturing location for Nissan electric vehicles, after Japan and the US.
However, the uptake of electric vehicles has been slower in the UK than had been hoped. Despite a £5,000 Government green car grant, only 106 electric cars were bought in the third quarter of 2011.
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