Production of the new Nissan Qashqai has begun in the U.K., introducing a raft of premium design, technology and performance improvements to Europe's best-selling crossover. Made at Nissan's plant in Sunderland, U.K., upgrades to the new model focus on four areas - a contemporary new exterior design, higher levels of interior quality, improved driving performance, and the addition of new Nissan Intelligent Mobility technologies.

The new Qashqai will also be available with ProPILOT autonomous driving capability, which controls the steering, acceleration and braking in a single lane on highways during heavy traffic congestion and high-speed cruising, from spring next year.

These significant new enhancements will underpin and strengthen the Qashqai's position as Europe's number one crossover, and follow a $95 million investment in Nissan's U.K. facilities. This includes extra production capacity introduced last year to enable the Qashqai to be built on both lines in Sunderland.

Made round-the-clock in Sunderland, the Qashqai is currently the best-selling vehicle built in the U.K., and is exported to around 100 European and global markets. It represents almost one in five of all British-made cars, and is Nissan's most successful model ever in Europe.

In addition to the Qashqai, Nissan also manufactures the all-electric Leaf, Juke crossover and Infiniti Q30 and QX30 premium models in Sunderland. With total production last year at 507,436 vehicles, and with more than 30 years of success behind it, Sunderland is the biggest U.K. car plant of all time.