Largest plant in United Kingdom to produce Nissan LEAF
Nissan’s Sunderland plant, established in 1984, has been the United Kingdom’s largest car producer for over 10 years – since 1998 to be precise. In 2010, the plant produced 423,262 vehicles. In 2013, it is looking to add the LEAF to that production tally. When fully dialed up, look for 50,000 LEAFs per year to emanate from the facility. If Oppama production is any indication however, look for initial production to be dramatically less than 4,000 per month. Most automakers crawl before they walk. With the importance of getting this vehicle right the first time, Nissan chose to make sure that the baby had all its fingers and toes before seeing if it could crawl. While upsetting many of the early adopters with this approach, in five years time, those looking to the LEAF will only know that it is (likely to be) the leading electric vehicle (EV) on the market.
Two items prompted this article. We just read a piece regarding Nissan’s apprenticeship program at the Sunderland plant. Since 1984 Nissan has taken on over a thousand apprentices in a five year program to develop young talent. Considering that the plant currently employs roughly 4,000, it is likely that other companies also benefit from this training as some of these apprentices move on after receiving their training.
The second item that prompted this post is the fact that Nissan snagged their highest European market share in 15 years in 2010. Nissan gained share in the U.S. as well. In our research, we found that globally Nissan production increased over 37% in 2010 over 2009, while Toyota gained just under 20%.
Why do we post articles like these? If we are about to own a product that is as cutting edge as the LEAF, we wish to be assured that the manufacturer producing the vehicle stands a good chance of supporting it, and continuing to develop the product. Nissan seems to be headed in the right direction.