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UK to produce 'world's first' mass-market electric car

18/03/2010

Nissan is set to build its new five-seat electric car in Sunderland, following a pledge of support from the Government.

Production of the Golf-sized Leaf - billed by the Japanese carmaker as the world's first zero-emission, mass-produced car - is set to create 550 engineering jobs in the city, where Nissan says it aims to produce up to 50,000 vehicles and 60,000 batteries a year.

The move follows news last summer that Nissan would invest heavily in the North East to build rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, and forms part of a £420 million investment by Nissan in UK operations. The Government has designated the region as the UK's first "low-carbon economic area", specialising in ultra-low carbon vehicles.

However, while the car, which has a claimed average range of 100 miles, is set to appear on UK roads in the first quarter of 2011, it will not be built in Sunderland until 2013.

The Leaf's range makes it suitable for the majority of everyday journeys, according to Nissan UK managing director Paul Wilcox, who told BBC Radio Four's Today Programme that 93% of trips by car are less than 25 miles.

Though pricing of the car has not been announced, Wilcox said that the cost to buy and run it would be "at least in line with an internal combustion engine vehicle."

"I think there will be a rapid introduction of infrastructure to fully support the introduction of this model, and the industry moving in the direction of electric vehicles," he added.

Responding to the observation that UK electricity is produced primarily from coal, Wilcox said that investment in technology would see the power generated in the UK becoming cleaner over time, while it would become more difficult to drive down the emissions from cars powered by fossil fuels.

"Comparing the complete life of the product in terms of how it accesses energy, it's far more efficient than a normal internal combustion engine," he added.

In addition to the Government's promised £5,000 electric car subsidy - available from January 2011 - its "Plugged in Places" initiative will see thousands of public charging points springing up in the North East, Milton Keynes and London over the next five years.

Meanwhile, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills also announced today that it was supporting Ford's "major move to low-carbon vehicles" with loan guarantees worth £380 million. The money will be provided to assist the carmaker's £1.5 billion, five-year investment into a new generation of 'environmentally-friendly' engines, which is expected to safeguard jobs at several of the firm's plants.

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