Engineering news
The EV36Zero hub in Sunderland will combine production of an all-electric vehicle, a renewable microgrid providing 100% clean electricity, and a 9GWh capacity battery gigafactory, the Japanese company confirmed today (1 July).
The projects represent 6,200 jobs at Nissan and its UK suppliers, the carmaker said, including more than 900 new Nissan jobs and 750 jobs at the smart, low-carbon battery plant being built by partner Envision AESC. The facility could provide batteries for up to 100,000 Nissan electric vehicles per year.
As part of the £1bn announcement, Nissan will invest up to £423m into production of a next-generation all-electric vehicle, which will be available for export to European markets.
According to Sky News, the government will invest at least £100m into the building of the new facilities.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) welcomed the news. Chief executive Mike Hawes said: “Today’s announcement of new investment into battery production in Sunderland is great news for the sector, the region and all those employed locally. It also demonstrates the UK automotive industry’s commitment to ‘net zero’ and that the transition to these new electrified vehicles can be ‘Made In Britain’.”
To meet electrification targets and ensure the future success of UK automotive manufacturing, the SMMT said further commitments are needed.
“If we are to build 1m electric vehicles by 2030, however, we need more such commitments, with at least 60GWh of gigafactory capacity in this country by the end of the decade. The future competitiveness of our industry depends on securing these investments but also wider support for manufacturing. We need a ‘Build Back Better Fund’ to help manufacturing transformation, as well as a plan for charging infrastructure that will assure consumers to make the switch to these vehicles."
Nissan’s decision to bring battery manufacturing in-house is a “neat solution for shoring up its supply chain and… proof that this approach can make economic sense,” said Dominic Tribe, director and automotive sector specialist at management consultancy Vendigital.
“Manufacturing its own batteries will provide the carmaker with full control over its intellectual property, while enabling it to manage capacity and outputs. EV batteries are large and heavy items, so switching to a shorter, localised supply chain could also help Nissan to reduce its tariff and logistics costs.”
He added: “The entire automotive sector is tackling the puzzle of how to scale up to meet growing demand for electric cars in a cost-efficient way. In order to achieve the government’s legal requirement to phase out the production of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, much more investment in gigafactories will be required, and Nissan won’t be the only UK OEM to take this approach.”
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