Nissan chooses Britain as electric car capital of Europe

Nissan has announced that its plant at Sunderland is to manufacture the Leaf, the world’s first mass-produced electric car.

The company is investing £420m in a new factory at the facility to provide batteries for the estimated 50,000 examples of the car it plans to turn out each year. The Nissan site will start production in 2013 when it will provide cars to the entire European market.

Nissan and its partner Renault are strongly committed to electric vehicle projects, together investing over £3bn, but the decision to move production to Britain rather than a facility in Spain was sweetened by a £20.7million government grant and the likelihood of finance package from the European Investment Bank of around £200m.

The European Bank last year approved a £380m green-car loan for Nissan.

A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “Britain is now well placed to establish itself as a world leader in electric car manufacturing.”

Nissan leaf to cost ‘less than £20,000’

Nissan plans to undercut the price of the Mitsubishi i-Miev and sell its Leaf five-seater electric car in Japan for £24,500 – £28,000 (Y3m-Y4m) according to the leading Japanese newspaper, Mainichi Shimbun.

The i-Miev is currently priced at around £32,200 (Y4.6m)

If the Leaf keeps a price of £24,500 when it arrives in Britain it will cost less than £20,000 when the government electric car grant of £5,000 is taken into account.

• Electric car recharging will be wireless