The story
History
Nissan had been importing cars from its native country Japan to the UK since 1968, under the Datsun brand (which was phased out between 1982 and 1984, when the Nissan brand took over completely). After a steady start, its market share rose dramatically from just over 6,000 car sales in 1971 to more than 30,000 a year later, and reaching 100,000 a year before the end of the decade, aided by competitive prices, good equipment levels and a reputation for producing reliable cars. The success of Datsun came at a time when the British car industry, particularly British Leyland, was blighted by strikes as well as reports of disappointing build quality and reliability of many of its cars.
In February 1984, Nissan and the UK government signed an agreement to build a car plant in the UK. The following month a 799-acre (3.23 km2) greenfield site in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, was chosen. As an incentive the land was offered to Nissan at agricultural prices; around £1,800 per acre. The North East region of England had recently undergone a period of industrial decline, with the closure of most of the shipyards on the Wear and Tyne, and the closure of many coal mines on the once prosperous Durham coalfield. The high unemployment this caused meant Nissan had a large, eager, manufacturing-skilled workforce to draw upon. The site, once the Sunderland Airfield (formerly RAF Usworth), was close to ports on the Wear and Tyne, within easy driving distance of the international Newcastle Airport, and close to major trunk roads such as the A1 and A19, as well as major ports for the export of vehicles. The established company became known as Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd, or NMUK. A ground breaking ceremony took place in July, and work began on the site in November 1984, by building contractors Sir Robert McAlpine.
One of Nissan's more controversial demands during the talks was that the plant be single-union. This was unprecedented in UK industry. In April 1985, an agreement was reached with the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU). However, critics argue that this means the plant workforce is weakly represented, as workers are only members of one single union. Nissan argues that as a result of the single-union agreement, its workforce is much more flexible than at other plants, and it points to the fact that not a single minute has been lost to industrial disputes at the factory in more than 30 years of production – a stark contrast to the strikes which hit the likes of British Leyland during the 1970s.
In December 1985, McAlpine handed over the completed factory building to Nissan for the installation of machinery and factory components, ahead of schedule. Phase 1 of the plant construction was completed in July 1986, consisting of a body, paint and final assembly Line. The first Bluebird was produced shortly after and is on display at the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens. Official opening of the plant by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Nissan President Yutaka Kume took place in September 1986. By February 1987, NMUK had become the sole supplier of the Bluebird model to the UK market, after a brief spell of importing Japanese built models, and work on phase two of the plant began, with plastics moulding and engine assembly beginning in 1988, and was completed in May 1990. This would prove to be a landmark year for the plant, with the introduction of the P10 Primera, the first model to be wholly built at NMUK, replacing the Bluebird and going into production that summer. By 1991, despite the recession, the plant turned its first profit of £18.4 million, and was awarded 'British Manufacturer' status by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Around this time, Nissan ended its relationship with Octav Botnar and the Automotive Financial Group (AFG), which had been its UK import concessionaire since 1970, and brought the import and distribution business in-house, basing it at the Sunderland plant. In August 1992, the plant began to produce two models, with the introduction of the highly successful Micra, which was the first car of a Japanese brand to be voted "European Car of the Year". The Micra proved particularly popular with British and continental buyers, and was in production for a whole decade until the launch of the next generation Micra.
The early 21st century was a period of growth for the plant, with the plant being awarded contracts to build the updated Almera from the end of 1999, becoming a three-model plant, and continuation of the Micra and Primera model changes. The Micra C+C was also produced there after the introduction of a new Micra hatchback at the end of 2002.
Late 2005 saw the introduction of the Note model, and a year later came the demise of the Almera and the introduction of the Qashqai. At this point, NMUK had built a reputation for being the most efficient plant in Europe.
The Primera five-door model had the distinction of being the first model built at NMUK to be exported to the Japanese market. By 2008, however, falling sales led to its demise (UK sales had finished two years earlier). The Qashqai became the main model for the plant, with such high demand that a night shift was introduced to keep up. Nearly 5,000 workers were employed at the plant by this stage; albeit 1,200 of them were made redundant in January 2009 as a result of the recession which saw demand for new cars slump.
Despite a temporary suspension of the third shift due to the automotive industry crisis of 2008, the third shift was reintroduced, and the strong demand for the Qashqai has helped NMUK remain strong throughout the crisis.
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After the crisis, Nissan announced that the new Juke model would be built starting in July 2010, replacing the Micra (now produced in Chennai, India) and that NMUK would be the European manufacturing location for the Electric Vehicle Leaf model beginning in 2011, as well as an on-site lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility for an investment of £420 million (US$636 million), backed by the U.K. government. 2013 saw the introduction of the second-generation Note and Qashqai.
Nissan's Sunderland plant in northeast England will play an important role in the firm's future, executives said in May 2020, despite plans to downsize elsewhere in Europe.
In July 2021, Nissan announced plans to create 400 jobs at the Sunderland factory site to build a new electric vehicle and models such as the Juke, Qashqai and the Leaf. This development forms part of plans to create 6,000 new jobs in Sunderland at Nissan and among its suppliers, under a blueprint announced by the company earlier in July as it invests £1bn to develop an electric vehicle manufacturing hub in the United Kingdom.
In 2025, 273,000 cars were manufactured, 3% fewer than in 2024, and less than half of the plant's maximum production capacity of about 600,000 cars. In May 2026, Nissan consolidated all its production onto one of the two production lines, without a reduction of its about 6,000 employees. This created the possibility of a contract to build cars for Chinese manufacturer Chery in 2027.
Information technology
NMUK relies heavily on information technology to function. Computer-controlled robots and other machinery, particularly in the body shop, are vital to production. These machines are maintained and controlled by specialist engineering teams. Other functions, such as the complex scheduling of vehicles, parts control and ordering, vehicle tracking, etc. are managed by software written in-house. Most of the software resides on an IBM mainframe computer. This mainframe is not just responsible for NMUK; it controls business functions across the Europe region, including NMUK's sister plant, NMISA, based in Barcelona, Spain. The mainframe is located within the European Data Centre (EDC), which houses and maintains the mainframe and over 50 servers.
From Wikipedia’s article on Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5