London (AFP)

The Japanese car maker said Thursday that it plans to build a UK battery "giga-factory" next to its existing site in Sunderland, in the north of the country, where it will manufacture a new electric vehicle.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson described as a "major vote of confidence in the United Kingdom" this post-Brexit investment which totals 1 billion pounds in the largest European plant of Nissan, and which will generate 6,200 jobs.

Nissan's battery supplier, the Chinese Envision AESC, will invest 450 million pounds in this plant which will run on renewable energies and will equip 100,000 electric vehicles of the group per year.

Nissan plans to spend up to 423 million pounds on an all-electric vehicle while Sunderland City Council will complete the investment to the tune of 1 billion pounds.

“This is a historic day for Nissan, our partners, the UK and the automotive industry,” said Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta.

Nissan, which warned that a no-deal Brexit would threaten the existence of its 35-year-old Sunderland plant, said the new project would create 6,200 jobs in the group and among its British suppliers.

# photo1

There will be 900 new jobs at Nissan and 750 new positions at Envision AESC as a result of this investment.

- "Huge step" -

The new car complex represents "a huge step towards our ambition to place the UK at the forefront of the global electric vehicle race," commented UK Enterprise Minister Kwasi Kwarteng.

"The cars made in this factory, the batteries made right down the street in the UK's first giga-factory of this magnitude, will play a major role in our transition from gasoline and diesel cars 'to electric vehicles'. , he added.

Nissan started building its first electric vehicle and started battery production in Sunderland in 2013 with its Leaf model.

The Japanese group had recently faced a series of difficulties, from a slowdown in demand due to the pandemic to the fallout from the arrest of its former boss Carlos Ghosn, now in Lebanon after having illegally fled Japan in December 2019.

It also delayed the launch initially planned for this summer of its Ariya electric model to this winter because of the microprocessor supply problems that plague the entire automotive sector.

# photo2

In the UK, Lei Zhang, founder and CEO of Envision Group, said Thursday his company is investing in a long-term partnership with Nissan "to build high-performance, long-range batteries to build affordable electric vehicles. for millions of motorists ".

Renault, the French partner of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, unveiled on Monday the establishment in Douai in northern France of a battery mega-factory from AESC, the Japanese battery subsidiary of the Chinese green technology group Envision.

© 2021 AFP