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Nissan creating thousands of green jobs with new electric plant

By
Lily Walton
Published
December 30, 2022

Envision AESC and Sunderland City Council have broken ground on a new gigafactory near the existing Nissan plant in Sunderland which will create thousands of new jobs when it's completed.

The new facility is an electric car battery plant which will have a capacity of 12 GWh and produce enough batteries to power more than 100,000 electric vehicles. When the plant is up and running, it will produce AESC’s latest generation of battery, which has 30% more energy capacity, offering improved range and efficiency.

AESC was set up by Nissan and partners and they have created a £1 billion partnership  with Sunderland City Council to create EV36Zero, a hub supporting the manufacturing of the next generation of electric vehicles and speeding up the UK's transition to net zero in the motoring industry.

The first electric vehicle battery was built back in 2012 so the start of the construction also marked a decade of battery production in the region. In that time the company has more than doubled the size of production and now employs more than 470 people in Sunderland. In December it marked the 250,000th Nissan Leaf rolling off the production line with a festive light display powered by its electric vehicle technology. It's been a big year for the company which also saw the first electric versions of the Qashqai and Juke models to be manufactured at the plant.

The new building will be the size of 23 football pitches and spans land in South Tyneside and Sunderland. The new building will pave the way for future investment that could eventually see the site generate 4,500 new high value green jobs.

Envision AESC CEO Shoichi Matsumoto said: “The first pillar event marks the latest phase of Envision AESC’s investment in the UK and is a sign of our ongoing commitment to Sunderland.

“I want to pay tribute to the fantastic team in Sunderland who over the past decade have helped ensure each and every battery is built without compromise and helped make AESC a leading battery supplier.”

Sunderland City Council Leader Coun Graeme Miller, said: “As work begins on Envision AESC’s landmark new Gigafactory, we are accelerating our journey towards a greener, more sustainable future in the North East both in advanced manufacturing and in transport.