Next Nissan Juke to be built in Britain

Nissan has announced that the next-generation Nissan Juke crossover will be built at its Sunderland manufacturing plant. The news came as Nissan also revealed a further £100m investment in the plant, securing the jobs of 34,000 people employed by Nissan and its British suppliers.

The Nissan Juke was amongst the first small crossover vehicles to go on sale and it became a smash hit, helping to cement the crossover class as one of the fastest growing in Europe. 

News that the next Juke will be built here not only affects the Sunderland plant, but also Nissan’s design studios in Paddington, London and its European Engineering Headquarters in Cranfield, Bedfordshire. Workers at both locations will have a crucial hand in developing the car and ensuring it perfectly fits the bill for European buyers.

Nissan’s Sunderland plant has produced 500,000 vehicles in each of the last three years, with 80 per cent of these exported outside the UK. As well as the current Nissan Juke, the plant is also producing the Nissan Qashqai, Nissan Note and all-electric Nissan LEAF, with production of the Infiniti Q30 – from Nissan’s luxury marque – planned to begin later this year. These production levels make Nissan the biggest carmaker in the history of the UK car industry.

According to figures from the Society of Motoring Manufacturers (SMMT), Jaguar Land Rover is the second biggest British producer (374,355 volume in 2014), followed by MINI (178,993), Toyota (172,215) and Honda (121,799).

In the same year, Britain was the third largest automotive manufacturer in Europe, with 1,528,148 cars built. France produced slightly fewer (1,495,000), while Spain was second with 1,898,342. But, with 5,604,026, Germany is still the undisputed vehicle manufacturing powerhouse in Europe.