Nissan had been importing cars from its native country Japan to the UK since 1968, under the
Datsun brand (which was phased out between 1982 and 1984, when the Nissan brand took over completely). After a steady start, its market share rose dramatically from just over 6,000 car sales in 1971 to more than 30,000 a year later, and reaching 100,000 a year before the end of the decade, aided by competitive prices, good equipment levels and a reputation for producing reliable cars. The success of Datsun came at a time when the British car industry, particularly
British Leyland, was blighted by strikes as well as reports of disappointing build quality and reliability of many of its cars. In February 1984, Nissan and the UK government signed an agreement to build a car plant in the UK. The following month a greenfield site in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, was chosen. As an incentive the land was offered to Nissan at agricultural prices; around £1,800 per acre. The
North East region of England had recently undergone a period of
industrial decline, with the closure of most of the
shipyards on the
Wear and
Tyne, and the closure of many
coal mines on the once prosperous
Durham coalfield. The high unemployment this caused meant Nissan had a large, eager, manufacturing-skilled workforce to draw upon. The site, once the Sunderland Airfield (formerly
RAF Usworth), was close to ports on the
Wear and
Tyne, within easy driving distance of the international
Newcastle Airport, and close to major trunk roads such as the
A1 and A19, as well as major ports for the export of vehicles. The established company became known as Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd, or NMUK. A ground breaking ceremony took place in July, and work began on the site in November 1984, by building contractors
Sir Robert McAlpine. One of Nissan's more controversial demands during the talks was that the plant be single-
union. This was unprecedented in UK industry. In April 1985, an agreement was reached with the
Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU). However, critics argue that this means the plant workforce is weakly represented, as workers are only members of one single union. Nissan argues that as a result of the single-union agreement, its workforce is much more flexible than at other plants, and it points to the fact that not a single minute has been lost to
industrial disputes at the factory in more than 30 years of production – a stark contrast to the strikes which hit the likes of British Leyland during the 1970s. was the first car to be produced at the factory. In December 1985, McAlpine handed over the completed factory building to Nissan for the installation of machinery and factory components, ahead of schedule. Despite a temporary suspension of the third shift due to the
automotive industry crisis of 2008, the third shift was reintroduced, and the strong demand for the Qashqai has helped NMUK remain strong throughout the crisis. After the crisis, Nissan announced that the new
Juke model would be built starting in July 2010, replacing the Micra (now produced in
Chennai, India) and that NMUK would be the European manufacturing location for the Electric Vehicle
Leaf model beginning in 2011, as well as an on-site lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility for an investment of £420 million (US$636 million), backed by the U.K. government. 2013 saw the introduction of the second-generation Note and Qashqai. Nissan's Sunderland plant in northeast England will play an important role in the firm's future, executives said in May 2020, despite plans to downsize elsewhere in Europe. In July 2021, Nissan announced plans to create 400 jobs at the Sunderland factory site to build a new electric vehicle and models such as the Juke, Qashqai and the Leaf. This development forms part of plans to create 6,000 new jobs in Sunderland at Nissan and among its suppliers, under a blueprint announced by the company earlier in July as it invests £1bn to develop an electric vehicle manufacturing hub in the United Kingdom. ==Models produced at Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK ==