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New Nissan jobs from engine contract

Nissan in Sunderland has won a contract to assemble a new engine from next year, securing further jobs at the plant.

Assembly of the 2.0 litre engine, codenamed ‘MR’, will safeguard up to 130 jobs with the expectation that an additional 200 posts will be created by 2013.

The contract has been secured through a £1.94 million grant from One North East, supporting a £12.92 million investment by Nissan over the next four years.

The announcement is part of Nissan’s ongoing initiative to localise production close to target markets.

This minimises logistics costs and reduces exposure to exchange rates as well as allowing the company to react more quickly to customer demand.

It follows last week’s announcement that the Nissan European Mother Site for Battery production would be based at Sunderland.

The new engine will be used in several models including Nissan’s award winning Qashqai and Qashqai +2, which are also produced on Wearside.

Trevor Mann, Nissan Senior Vice President for Manufacturing in Europe said: “This is excellent news for Sunderland Plant, in particular for our Engine operation and I would like to thank One North East for their vital support.

“Employees have worked incredibly hard to improve the overall competitiveness of this part of the production process in terms of both quality and cost, and today’s news is just reward for their efforts.

“Not only will this new business safeguard and create jobs at the plant with more amongst our suppliers, it also positions us to bid strongly for future engine derivatives.”

One North East Chairman Margaret Fay said: “This is further good news for the region following last week’s announcement that Nissan’s European Mother Plant for electric vehicle batteries will be based at Sunderland.

“The investment from Nissan is also further recognition for the skills and productivity of the workforce plant and will be of major benefit to the wider automotive industry here in the North East.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .