UK electric car manufacturing - some headline news in the press this morning about the Nissan Leaf. Plans have been unvieled to build this originally Japanese electric car in the UK.
The Japanese Nissan Motor Company is to begin building its flagship electric vehicle - the Leaf at its Sunderland plant from early 2013. This will make the UK its third global production site for the zero (tailpipe) emission vehicle.
Nissan had already announced plans to make the electric car batteries cars in Sunderland. Having considered several European sites, it is now also planning to place production of the car in Sunderland too. This is pretty good news for the workers in Sunderland and the projected annual production capacity will be 50,000 Leaf electric cars.
Nissan is one of the more forward thinking car makers in terms of electric vehicle technology. Production of the Leaf and batteries is envisaged to entail investment of more than £420M in Sunderland. This will be supported by a British government grant of £20.7M.
There is no detail yet on what the Leaf might cost but it is claimed it will be competitive to similar sized regular cars.
Nissan have created a
April 27, 2012 - 8:35am — adrianglockNissan have created a benchmark on electric cars. They are the first to mass produce the car to fully function on electrical power. While trucks needs best tonneau cover to make it aerodynamically efficient, the Nissan leaf is like a bullet that cuts through air.