The Japanese auto company Nissan wants to invest heavily in its plant in Sunderland, England, despite Brexit. A new electric car is to be produced there in the future. Nissan and its Chinese partner Envision AESC also want to build a completely new plant for batteries in the city. The plant with a capacity of nine gigawatt hours could be expanded to up to 35 gigawatt hours, Nissan announced on Thursday.
With the batteries, 100,000 Electric vehicles be equipped in the year. The partners’ investments, along with public funds, amounted to £ 1 billion. Around 6,200 jobs, including suppliers, would be in Great Britain created. Nissan alone will spend up to £ 423 million to produce a new generation all-electric crossover at the plant where it already produces the LEAF electric vehicle and Qashqai crossover SUV.
“Today’s announcement will significantly accelerate our efforts to achieve CO2 neutrality in Europe,” said Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida (54). British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, 57, said Nissan’s move was “a great vote of confidence in Britain and our highly skilled workers in the Northeast”. Zhang Lei, founder and CEO of the Envision Group, said that the battery plant could also supply other large manufacturers and may export electric car batteries after an expansion of capacity – for example to Europe.
Forced to act by Brexit
However, the Japanese carmaker was also forced to act as a result of Brexit. The trade agreement negotiated with the European Union last year enables the free trade of cars – but with one important restriction: at least 40 percent of the vehicle’s value must be produced in Great Britain or the EU. Otherwise it cannot be sold in the EU. From 2027 it will be 55 percent. Currently one can out China imported battery can make up half the retail price of the vehicle. In addition, the British government does not want to allow any new cars with internal combustion engines from 2030 onwards.
Envision also cooperates with Renault
So far, China is the largest manufacturer of batteries for electric cars. But the European locations are slowly catching up. Supported by politicians who fear the end of combustion engines will result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, more and more car manufacturers are announcing that they want to set up their own battery factories.
It was only on Monday that the Chinese Envision group had a similar partnership with the French automaker Renault proclaimed. As a result, the two partners want to invest up to two billion euros in a battery factory in northern France and create 2,500 jobs. Renault and Nissan have an alliance with the Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi.