Nissan's Sunderland plant has now surpassed 5 million models of the Qashqai and Juke, with electrified versions now rolling off the production lines.
The Qashqai is now offered with Nissan's unique e-POWER system, for the first time in Europe. The smaller-sized Juke is also now equipped with a hybrid powertrain.
You can read more in-depth about e-POWER in our previous article, but in short, e-POWER uses the petrol engine not to propel the vehicle, but to act as a power generator to charge a lithium-ion battery pack. The petrol engine generates electricity, which can be transmitted via an inverter to the battery pack, the 140kW electric motor or both, adapting to any driving style.
These new powertrains have been launched as combined production of the two iconic crossover models has passed five million units in Sunderland and because of this, Nissan now offers an electrified variant of every model in the range.
Alan Johnson, Nissan’s Vice President for Manufacturing in the UK, said:
“With more than five million customers, Qashqai and Juke are two of our plant’s most successful and popular models ever.“Both e-POWER and hybrid technologies are firsts for the team in Sunderland, so it’s fantastic to see the electrified versions rolling off our two production lines.”
Alan Johnson added:
“Our plant is built on the foundations of 36 years of manufacturing excellence from our world-class people and advanced facilities.“Two million hours of training just for electrification shows we are taking that to the next level, as we lead the charge towards an electrified future. “And of course we’ll continue to deliver brilliant, technologically advanced, cars to the high standards of quality that our customers have come to love.”
The launches come after Nissan announced Sunderland Plant as the home of EV36Zero. You can read more about it here.
Both Qashqai and Juke are designed, engineered and manufactured by Nissan in its UK facilities, supporting more than 7,000 jobs in Paddington, Maple Cross, Cranfield, Lutterworth and Sunderland, as well as a further 30,000 in the wider UK supply chain and about 5,000 in UK dealerships.