Nissan is reportedly in advanced talks with the Government in relation to plans to build a gigafactory in the north of England.
The expansion of the firm’s existing site at Sunderland would see post-Brexit Britain become Nissan’s largest electric vehicle production centre outside Japan, building 200,000 plug-in vehicles every year and creating thousands of jobs.
According to the Financial Times, which first reported the news, an announcement could come in the summer ahead of the COP26 summit. As part of the deal, though, Nissan would reportedly ask the Government for tens of millions of pounds in financial support.
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The gigafactory would be run by Envision - Nissan’s Chinese battery manufacturer - which bought a stake in the Japanese brand’s worldwide battery plants in 2019.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has previously emphasised the importance of automotive firms choosing the UK as the place to build new gigafactories as a means of increasing car production and meeting emissions targets.
Construction on the UK’s first gigafactory - a Britishvolt site in Northumberland - is beginning in 2022, will be operational by 2023 and at full capacity in 2027, at which point it will be producing 300,000 lithium-ion battery packs a year.
Coventry City Council and Coventry Airport also announced in February a joint bid to submit a planning application and source £2 billion of funding from automotive firms for a gigafactory in the West Midlands, but it’s not been confirmed this is going ahead yet.
A Nissan spokesperson told the Financial Times that the firm had “no further plans to announce at this time”, while a spokesperson for Envision added it had “no further plans or comments to make at this time”.
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