Member Article

Sunderland-made car passes one million milestone

As manufacturer Hitachi prepares to move into the region and begin producing trains, it doesn’t have to look far to see what can be achieved through the combination of precision Japanese technology and the highly-skilled North East engineering workforce.

For the company’s compatriot Nissan has this morning announced that over one million of its crossover model, the Qashqai, have now rolled out of the Wearside plant onto roads across the UK, Europe and beyond.

The vehicle, which was designed and engineered in the UK and is produced at the manufacturer’s Sunderland facility, has become a mainstream bestseller, entering the top ten sales rankings in Britain.

Guillaume Masurel, Nissan’s global chief marketing manager for Qashqai, said the economical model has set a trend that other companies have since followed.

“The Qashqai clearly demonstrates Nissan’s unique approach to meet customers’ changing expectations of their cars,” he saidd.

Earlier this year the company announced that its Sunderland plant enjoyed a record year of production in 2010, driven primarily by the success of the Qashqai.

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