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Japanese carmaker Nissan announced on Nov. 24 that it would invest 1.12 billion pounds (10.08 billion yuan) to upgrade its Sunderland plant in north-east England to produce tram versions of its two best-selling local models, the tram version of the Xiaoke and Juke models. However, as of press time, Nissan has not yet announced a detailed production date.

According to reports, in 2021, Nissan and its battery supplier Vision Power announced that they would invest 1 billion pounds in the Sunderland plant, when Nissan promised to produce new electric models at the plant. Vision Power said it would build a large battery plant here. At present, the plant employs 6000 people and mainly produces fuel or hybrid versions of Xiaoke and small Juke crossovers.

Nissan invested 1.12 billion pounds (10.08 billion yuan) to produce electric vehicles for its best-selling cars at its UK plant as part of Nissan's strategy to further promote electric vehicles. Nissan said the plan would require investment of up to £2 billion in a third battery plant and infrastructure projects in the UK, while the name and timing of the trams to be produced will be announced at a later date.

"with the upcoming launch of the electric version of our core European model, we are accelerating towards a new era for Nissan," Nissan chief executive Makoto Uchida said in a statement. " It stressed that Nissan will continue to be committed to providing higher quality and more environmentally friendly automotive products to consumers around the world. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomed the investment decision, saying: "Nissan's investment is a huge vote of confidence in the British auto industry." The British car industry contributes 71 billion pounds to the economy every year. According to another report, the British government said in another press release on the same day that Nissan's money would also be used for "broader investment in infrastructure projects and supply chains, including the construction of a new super factory for electric car batteries at the site."

Nissan was an early leader in the electric vehicle industry. In November 2021, Nissan unveiled its Vision 2030, announcing an investment of 2 trillion yen ($17.6 billion) over the next five years to launch 20 pure electric models and models with Nissan e-POWER technology, and to convert more product lines to electrification. By fiscal year 2030, Nissan will launch 23 electric vehicles, including 15 electric vehicles. In addition, Nissan has determined that all new cars in Europe will be driven by pure electricity, and expects its passenger car line in Europe to be 100% electric by 2030.

It is worth mentioning that although Nissan mastered a lot of new energy vehicle technology in the early stage, it got up early and caught up with the late collection due to the misjudgment of the strategy for the development of the new energy vehicle market. Take the Chinese market as an example, Nissan currently has only Ariya ARIYA, a pure electric SUV, on sale in the Chinese market, and its performance is very mediocre in the auto market. Ariya ARIYA sold a cumulative total of 2707 vehicles from January to October, including 988 in October, according to retail data from the Federation.

But in Nissan's transformation plans, the Chinese market is also home to Nissan's core business. At present, Nissan's joint venture company Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. has Nissan, Qichen, Infiniti and Dongfeng brands in the Chinese market. In June this year, Dongfeng Nissan released the "re-Entrepreneurship Plan" to fight for new energy. Among them, the Nissan brand will launch seven electric drive models by 2026, and by 2030, 80% of the product line will be electric drive. Qichen brand will launch at least two new new energy models every year, and gradually challenge the goal of annual sales of 500000 units, eventually becoming Dongfeng Nissan's second growth curve. Then in August, the media reported that Nissan would use the S pure electric platform in Dongfeng's newly released quantum intelligent electric architecture to develop and produce Nissan's pure electric models.

Now electrification has almost become the transformation direction of global car companies, as to whether Nissan can make a difference in the electric car market, we might as well wait and see.

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