Sunderland's Nissan plant hits 11 millionth car milestone

Sunderland's Nissan plant has hit another amazing landmark, with the production of its 11 millionth car.

The news means that, on average, a new car has rolled off the line at the plant every two minutes, every hour of every day, for 37 years.

The first model, built in 1986, was a white Nissan Bluebird, which took about 22 hours to build. Today, a top of the range Qashqai e-POWER takes about 8.5 hours.

Qashqai has been an incredible success since its launch in 2006, with more than 4,000,000 - almost a third of the plant's total output - produced.

'We've come a long way'

And fittingly, the latest landmark car was a Blade Silver Qashqai e-POWER, one of three electrified models currently built at the plant. It is destined for a customer in France, just one of the 137 global markets to which the factory currently exports.

Adam Pennick, Vice President, Manufacturing, at Nissan Sunderland, said: “This milestone reflects the vast experience that our world-class manufacturing team has in delivering the quality cars that our customers love.

“We’ve come a long way since production first started with some iconic models on the way. But we’re always looking forward, and our fully electrified range and EV36Zero plan mean we have an exciting and sustainable future ahead.”

UK's best-selling new car

The 11 million is made up of nine different models, with 22 variants. Four models, Qashqai, Micra, Primera and Juke have gone past seven figures.

Last year Qashqai was the UK’s best-selling new car – the first British built model to win the award in 24 years.

The UK’s largest car manufacturer by volume, Sunderland Plant is home to a workforce of about 6,000 people and the firm supports a further 30,000 UK jobs in the supply chain, with about five million parts arriving every day at the plant.

Last summer Qashqai e-POWER and Juke Hybrid both went into production in Sunderland which, added to the all-electric Nissan LEAF, means the full range at the plant is electrified.

So far more than 50,000 Qashqai e-POWER and 20,000 Juke HYBRID have been built.