Nissan on Thursday announced details of a new battery “Gigafactory” that enables massive increase production of electric vehicles. The Japanese manufacturer said it was launching the project with a £1bn battery plant, built in partnership with Chinese manufacturer Envision, that will create 900 jobs opportunities at Nissan and an overall 1,650 new jobs at hub and 750 at Envision ASEC.
Prime Minister, Boris Johnson hailed as a “major vote of confidence in the UK” – although refused to draw the extent at which backed by the taxpayers.
This plant is set to become the largest battery “gigafactory” in the UK. So-called gigafactories – The term, coined by Tesla founder Elon Musk, comes from the unit of measurement representing billions.
Envision manufacturers lithium-ion batteries for Nissan’s short-range Leaf model at Sunderland in a plant with a capacity for 1.7 gigawatt hours per-year.
The new plant will be much bigger and is set to have the capacity for 9GWh, sufficient enough to produce batteries for up to 100,000 vehicles annually.
Nissan’s Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta said, “our roadmap to … carbon neutrality.”
“But let me say that post-pandemic, this is new normal, because we plan our supply chain based on predictable scenarios, and this is an unpredictable scenario,”– Gupta said.
Adding to it he said “So, although we are doing a minor production adjustment … on the other side it’s a good problem for us to solve, which is: Not how to sell the car but it is more how to make the car. So we have a good problem to solve, and we are solving it and we will solve it.”
