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Japanese car giant Nissan has unveiled plans for the UK’s first “gigafactory” producing batteries for electric vehicles, in a £1bn investment plan that secures the future of its Sunderland car plant.
The move is a boost for the North East, and the UK’s car industry as it tries to move from internal combustion engine to electric vehicles, in the push towards net zero.
Nissan has announced that will invest £423m in the Sunderland plant, to produce a new-generation all-electric crossover vehicle, creating 750 new jobs.
And its Chinese partner, battery producer Envision-AESC, is spending £450m building a battery factory next door, which will deliver electric power packs to power the vehicles, creating another 900 roles.
Sunderland council is also onboard – leading an £80m plan to create a “microgrid” of solar and wind farms to power the energy-intensive factories, including a dedicated energy storage facility made from second-hand electric car batteries.
The plan is expected to create around 6,000 direct and indirect jobs in the supply chain.
Gigafactories are vital to the move towards electric cars, and earlier this week the UK’s car industry warned that Britain risks being ‘stranded’ unless the government helped boost capacity. The SMMT called for a “binding target” of 60GWh of battery capacity by 2030, to protect the industry’s future:
The first phase of the Sunderland gigafactory will have a capacity of 9 Gigawatt hours, able to produce enough batteries for 100,000 cars a year, but if demand rises sufficiently, Envision may invest a further £1.8bn to expand the new plant to 25GWh by the end of the decade, the Financial Times says.
Nissan’s plan – merging vehicle and battery production with a renewable power source – is called “EV36Zero”, and chief executive Makoto Uchida says it can be a blueprint for the future of the automotive industry.
He added:
“Our announcement comes out of lengthy discussions, and will accelerate our efforts in Europe to achieve carbon neutrality. The experience and know-how gained through the project will be shared globally.”
Prime minister Boris Jonson called it a pivotal moment:
“Nissan’s announcement to build its new-generation all-electric vehicle in Sunderland, alongside a new gigafactory from Envision AESC, is a major vote of confidence in the UK and our…
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