Nissan’s U.K. Plant Turns 25

Nissan celebrates the 25th anniversary of the opening of its U.K. plant in Sunderland, a year after it became the first factory in that country to build more than 400,000 vehicles in one year.

Juke among Nissan models rolling off Sunderland assembly lines.

Last year, 423,262 vehicles rolled off the assembly line, raising cumulative output at Nissan Sunderland to more than 6.2 million in 12 different models, including Bluebird, Primera, Micra, Almera, Note, Qashqai and Juke.

Some 81% of 2010 production was exported to 97 markets worldwide.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn says the U.K.’s largest car plant and biggest car exporter is about to expand, with battery production for the Nissan Leaf planned for next year. Leaf production will begin at Sunderland in 2013.

Earlier this year, Ghosn announced the next generation of the Nissan Qashqai, the fastest U.K.-made car to reach 1 million units, will be designed, engineered and manufactured in the U.K.

The Qashqai project raises Nissan’s total investment in its U.K. manufacturing base to £3.3 billion ($5.3 billion).

Of the 430 people employed at the Sunderland plant on opening day, 133 are still there. The 25th- anniversary celebrations were led by two original staff members: Trevor Mann, senior vice president for manufacturing-Europe; and Kevin Fitzpatrick, vice president for manufacturing-U.K. The plant now has about 5,000 employees.