While Renault revealed its eWays EV strategy in France, its Alliance partner Nissan at its Sunderland base in the UK revealed the EV36Zero strategy. The EV36Zero is a planned £1 billion Electric Vehicle Hub — billed as the world’s first EV manufacturing ecosystem. Nissan has partnered with Envision AESC and Sunderland City Council to make this a reality.
Envision AESC already owns and operates a battery plant in Sunderland since 2012, supplying batteries for Leaf and e-NV200. As part of this new strategy, Envision will invest £450 million to build what is claimed to be the UK’s first gigafactory — adjacent to the Nissan plant, powered by renewable energy. Initially, the plant will have a 9 GWh capacity, with potential for up to 30 GWh by 2030 depending on the investments. The battery packs produced here will contain new Gen5 cells that are said to be 30% more energy denser. The new gigafactory is expected to create 750 new jobs.
As for Nissan, of the planned £1 billion investment, the company will initially invest up to £423 million to produce a new electric crossover — based on the Alliance’s CMF-EV platform. The crossover in question will most likely be Nissan’s version of the upcoming Renault MéganE. This new investment is expected to create 909 new jobs at the plant, and more than 4,500 in the UK supply chain, while safeguarding a further 75 R&D jobs.
Recommended for you
Leave a Reply
Note: Comments that are unrelated to the post above get automatically filtered into the trash bin.
