Nissan says it will lead lead electric vehicle drive

Nissan's vast carmaking plant in Sunderland will be at the centre of a 13 billion investment in developing electric vehicles.

The Japanese carmaker said yesterday that it would take the lead in electrification as it announced investment that will help develop 23 new electric models by 2030.

Europe will take over the world's electrification for Nissan, Ashwani Gupta, the group's chief operating officer, said in Japan. Sunderland is the one who will lead the charge towards electrification in Europe. The Sunderland site is Britain's biggest car factory, employing around 6,000 people. It makes the Nissan Qashqai, one of the most popular cars in Britain, as well as the Leaf, the world's bestselling electric car.

Boris Johnson praised the move as a pivotal moment in Britain's electric vehicle revolution and said that it was a vote of confidence in the country after Brexit.

Nissan is aiming for half of its manufacturing output to be electric by the year 2030. In the past decade, it will be spending twice as much money to expand its share of the electric vehicle market, in the face of competition from rivals such as Toyota and Tesla.

The role of companies to address societal needs is increasingly heightened, according to Makoto Uchida, chief executive of Nissan. He said Nissan would drive a new age of electrification, advance technologies to reduce carbon footprint and pursue new business opportunities. He said that Nissan would become a sustainable company that is truly needed by customers and society. Nissan wants to reduce lithium-ion battery costs by 65 per cent in the next eight years. By March 2029, it plans to introduce all-solid state batteries, with the potential to store more energy than lithium-ion batteries. The commitments would make electric vehicles affordable for more drivers, Uchida said.