Nissan has announced plans to build the UK’s first car battery “gigafactory” that will lead to a massive expansion of its plant in north-east England.
The Japanese car manufacturer said it would build a new all-electric car model next to the Sunderland factory.
The £1 billion ($1.4 billion) battery plant, built in partnership with Chinese battery supplier Envision, would create 900 jobs at Nissan and 750 at Envision, the companies said.
The facility was hailed as key to the UK's transition away from fossil fuel vehicles.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the investment was a “big deal” for the government’s post-Brexit agenda.
“Let’s not forget a number of years ago people were saying Nissan would leave the UK as a consequence of Brexit, and what’s happened is the opposite,” he told BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme on Thursday.
Mr Kwartang refused to say how much the UK government had contributed to the project.
“It would be completely irresponsible for me to go into matters which are commercially sensitive,” he said.
“It’s no secret that across the world that governments are seeking to attract a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build these gigafactories.”
The announcement 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 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.
"This is a huge step forward in our ambition to put the UK at the front of the global electric vehicle race," Mr Kwarteng said.
"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.”
Nissan established Britain's first electric vehicle and battery production at Sunderland in 2013 with its Leaf car.
The company has more recently faced a series of trials, from weak demand during the pandemic to the fallout from the arrest of former boss Carlos Ghosn, now an international fugitive after jumping bail and fleeing Japan.
Nissan has meanwhile delayed the planned summer launch of its flagship new electric Ariya model to this winter over the global chip shortage plaguing automakers.
Announced in July 2020, the new 100-percent electric model was initially supposed to go on sale in Japan from mid-2021, before arriving in Europe, North America and China by the end of the year.
In the UK, Lei Zhang, founder and chief executive officer of Envision Group, said Thursday that his company was building on its long-term partnership with Nissan "to make high performance, longer range batteries for electric vehicles affordable and accessible for millions more motorists".
He said growth in demand could bring future investment of up to £1.8 billion and 4,500 jobs by 2030.
A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
Tank warfare
Lt Gen Erik Petersen, deputy chief of programs, US Army, has argued it took a “three decade holiday” on modernising tanks.
“There clearly remains a significant armoured heavy ground manoeuvre threat in this world and maintaining a world class armoured force is absolutely vital,” the general said in London last week.
“We are developing next generation capabilities to compete with and deter adversaries to prevent opportunism or miscalculation, and, if necessary, defeat any foe decisively.”
The biog
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