Nissan opens new press in Sunderland, UK

— New XL system at the British Nissan site.
— Part of the investment in the production of the new Qashqai.
— 35,000 copies of the new Juke have already been manufactured at the site.

Opening of the new press shop in Sunderland – (photo by: Nissan)

At the British plant in Sunderland, Nissan opened its new, 60 million euro XL press shop. The installation of the plant, which weighs over 2,000 tons, took 18 months and is part of an investment of 460 million euros for the production of the new Nissan Qashqai – the third generation of the successful crossover.


During the opening ceremony, the first body parts were manufactured with the new system. “When the first Qashqai rolled off the assembly line here in 2006, it created the crossover segment,” said Ashwani Gupta, chief operating officer at Nissan. “More than three million vehicles later, the Qashqai, which was designed and manufactured in Great Britain, remains the benchmark for this vehicle class.” The entire team behind the press project signed the first pressed body part of the new system – a fender for the new Juke, which is also manufactured in Sunderland.

The Juke celebrates its tenth birthday in March 2020. The new version has been manufactured exclusively in Sunderland since October 2019 and sets new standards for technology and connectivity in the compact crossover vehicle class.

“I speak for the entire plant when I say how proud we are to see the new version of the Juke on the streets,” said Steve Marsh, vice president of manufacturing at Nissan’s Sunderland plant. “Our aim is to continue to deliver the Juke in the quality that our customers expect. To see how the first perfect parts come from the new press also makes us proud and shows what skills we have here at the location. ”

The new press shop includes a recycling system for separating and processing scrap as well as upgrading the existing punching system, from which flat blanks – the press-ready sheets – are fed to the new XL press. The new press shop is able to process more than 6.1 million vehicle sheets with a combined maximum force of 5,400 tons per year with the highest precision.

This investment for the production of the Qashqai comes in addition to the 115 million euros that were invested in the launch of the new Juke. In turn, they are part of a planned total investment in the Sunderland plant totaling EUR 1.15 billion over a period of five years. Nissan received funding for the latest investment from the UK’s Department of Economic Affairs, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Author: Nabeel K
Email: nabeel@wheelsjoint.com



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