Nissan's plant in Sunderland, UK has produced two million Qashqai SUVs in a record eight years, faster than any other model in the history of the UK car industry.
Designed and engineered in Europe, for Europe, the new Qashqai was conceived by Nissan experts at Nissan Design Europe (London, UK) and Nissan Technical Centre Europe (Cranfield, UK and Barcelona, Spain). Extensive input has also come from Nissan's designers and engineers in Atsugi, Japan.
The Qashqai is no stranger to awards, the original model having notched up numerous industry accolades over the last seven years. This latest landmark caps a remarkable year for the new Qashqai, with the launch of the new generation model sparking a string of titles including What Car? magazine’s coveted Car of the Year.
Paul Willcox, chairman of Nissan in Europe, said: “The Nissan Qashqai goes from strength to strength as the original and best-selling Crossover in Europe. Sold around the world and now hitting two million production units, it truly is a global success story for European design, engineering and manufacturing.
“Congratulations to all my colleagues in Sunderland for reaching this latest milestone. I am now looking forward to seeing how quickly we can reach three million units with this remarkable model, which embodies Nissan’s promise to bring innovation and excitement to our customers.”
Qashqai is made alongside the all-electric Leaf on Line 1 at Nissan’s Sunderland Plant, which has been on around-the-clock, three-shift production since 2010 in order to meet customer demand, with a car currently rolling off the production line every minute.
Total global production of the new Qashqai now tops 2.5 million, with the first generation Qashqai also made by Nissan in China and Japan. From 2015 the new Qashqai will also be manufactured in Nissan’s plant in St. Petersburg for domestic sales in Russia.
Nissan's plant in Sunderland, UK (NMUK) remains a global benchmark for productivity and quality, building more than 500,000 units a year. Sunderland builds Nissan Qashqai, Juke and Note as well as the Nissan Leaf, along with the advanced lithium-ion batteries that power it.
The Qashqai is now closing in on the Micra as the highest volume car in the history of Nissan’s Sunderland Plant, with 2,368,704 Micras made in Sunderland over an 18-year period from 1992 to 2010.
