Nissan UK car plant in top gear

Nissan’s British car plant had a record-breaking year in 2011, it was announced yesterday.

The factory near Sunderland in north-east England produced a total of 480,485 vehicles last year.

That beat the Japanese company’s previous record of 423,262 set a year earlier – when Sunderland became the first UK car plant to exceed the 400,000 mark.

The 2011 figures reflected the first full year of production of the Juke model as well as 24-hour manufacturing of the Qashqai and Qashqai+2.

Meanwhile, the number of jobs reached an all-time high, with 5,462 people directly employed on site.

Last year also saw the production, in January, of the plant’s six millionth vehicle. Nissan has operated at the site for 26 years.