Nissan commences Qashqai production in U.K.

Designed, engineered and manufactured in the U.K., the new Nissan Qashqai is the best-selling crossover in Europe and Nissan's best-selling model in Europe. Following widespread acclaim since its unveil in November, the new generation model is now in full production at Sunderland, U.K. where a Qashqai is built every 61 seconds.

The new Nissan Qashqai is built on Sunderland's Line 1, which has been running on 24-hour operations since 2010 to meet demand. It is also the first Nissan production vehicle in Europe to be based on the new Common Module Family (CMF) Renault-Nissan Alliance platform.

"The Nissan Qashqai blazed a trail when we started production in 2006. It invented the Crossover segment, propelled the Nissan brand in Europe to a new level and helped our plant in Sunderland to set new standards in productivity and quality," commented Nissan's Chief Performance Officer, Trevor Mann CBE.

Playing a starring role are members of the Nissan workforce, which has now grown above 7,000 for the first time in the plant's 28-year history. The international economic impact of the Qashqai now spreads from Sunderland across the world, with £534 million (S$1.12 billion) invested by Nissan in its development and production, supporting more than 224 suppliers in 22 countries, and exporting to more than 130 global markets.