Nissan will build the new version of its Leaf electric car at its Sutherland, UK factory.
Sunderland factory will start producing the Leaf replacement in 2026 as it prepares for the “vast majority” of the cars it builds to be EVs by 2028, the company has said in a submission to a government committee on battery manufacturing in the UK.
Nissan first announced that it would build a new electric crossover to replace the Leaf hatchback back in 2021 but until now hadn’t given a definitive date for production.
“The Leaf successor vehicle will enter production in 2026,” Nissan said in its submission to the BEIS select committee enquiry.
The date suggests Nissan will continue to build the Leaf until then, although it might choose to curtail production earlier, given the model’s age.
Nissan also told the enquiry that “from 2028 onwards, we expect the vast majority of [Sunderland output] to be full battery EVs”. Given that Sunderland has an annual capacity of 500,000 vehicles, this suggests that Nissan plans to introduce more EVs into the facility.
Nissan has previously said it plans to build 100,000 examples of the Leaf successor annually in the UK.
Production of the Leaf successor will secure 5000 jobs at the Sunderland plant and in the supply chain, Nissan said.
Nissan will leverage supply from the new battery facility currently being built on-site by partner firm Envision AESC.
This gigafactory will have a capacity of 11GWh operational by 2024 and have space nearby to expand to 30GWh, Nissan said in the submission.
Envision has said it hopes to sell to both Nissan and other UK-based automotive manufacturers, with Jaguar Land Rover one possibility.
JLR owner Tata has said that partnering with Envision is a possibility for a new battery factory in either Spain or the UK.
Nissan has previously said the Leaf replacement is based on the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance’s CMF-EV platform.
Envision said the battery cells supplied to Nissan will be “Gen 5”, with 30% more energy density than those in the current Leaf. The battery chemistry will be nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) rather than the cheaper lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), it said in 2021.
Nissan’s introduction of the new electric crossover and the replacement of the current small-scale Envision battery plant at Sunderland are part of a £1 billion (AUD$1.87bn) investment announced for the facility in 2021.
Nissan is the only large-scale UK car maker with a plan to source batteries locally, which will help it conform to the post-Brexit requirements to source an increasingly high proportion of the parts content for electrified cars either in the UK or EU.
From next year, 45% of the value of an EV built in Europe has to originate in either the UK or EU to avoid a 10% tariff when crossing the Channel. That will rise to 55% in 2027.
Stellantis, Ford and JLR have all argued that the requirement is too onerous and should be renegotiated.