Member Article

North East in the spotlight at green vehicle showcase

THE low carbon vehicle sector in North East England will be showcased at the industry’s major annual event this week.

The Cenex National Low Carbon Vehicle event will see experts from One North East will promote the region to potential investors.

Colin Herron, One North East’s manufacturing and productivity manager, said: “This is the major national event for the low carbon vehicles industry, and a strong delegation from the North East will be updating national and international partners on the progress we have made in the past 12 months.

“We will also be making sure that the investors attending leave in no doubt that the North East is the best place in which to develop low carbon vehicle technology.”

Since the last LCV event in 2009, Nissan has chosen its Sunderland plant to manufacture the Nissan LEAF and construction is under way of its advanced lithium-ion battery plant, which will have a production capacity of 60,000 units a year and will start manufacturing batteries in 2012.

The production of Nissan LEAF and the batteries represents a total investment of more than £420m in the plant and is expected to maintain about 2,250 jobs at Nissan and across the UK supply chain.

Other regional electric vehicle manufacturers continue to go from strength to strength.

Smith Electric Vehicles in Washington has launched the first ever apprenticeship dedicated to electric vehicles and is also working on a pure electric version of the iconic London black taxi.

And Cramlington-based AVID Vehicles has launched two new electric vehicles this summer.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .