C ar bodies suspended from overhead rails move through Nissans factory in Sunderland, with workers stepping in to fit parts at different stations. At the newly installed battery marriage station, lifting machines push the most crucial component up into the body. Robots fit and tighten 16 bolts in under a minute C quick enough to ensure the constant flow of vehicles around Britains biggest car factory.
The electric cars in question are the third generation of Nissans Leaf , after the Japanese carmaker this week launched production following 05450m of upgrades.
Beside the brightly lit final-inspection line, the industry minister Chris McDonald hailed the investment as an important part of the UK industrys transition to electric vehicles. The Leaf remains C for now C the only electric car to be built in large volumes in Britain.
However, the launch does not come at an auspicious moment for electric cars. Carmakers around the world have delayed models, complaining that sales have not grown as fast as expected.
On the same day as the Leafs launch, the EU announced it would water down a 2035 ban on petrol and diesel cars, proposing instead to allow 10% of European car sales to have internal combustion engines after that point.
Nissan has joined the retreat. Just two years ago it had pledged to sell only electric cars in Europe by 2030. However, Nissans boss in Europe, Massimiliano Messina, said in Sunderland that he was unwilling to commit to a date for the transition to be completed.
If I might give a number, it will be wrong, he said, when asked when Nissan would be all-electric in Europe. I cannot give you a date by when. But Im more confident that we talk about 2050.
The EU, a key market for the cars from Sunderland, was the last domino to fall in a global move to slow the transition, after a global barrage of lobbying by the politically powerful car industry. The UK weakened its zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate in April C and will examine further changes . Canada paused its EV sales mandate in September.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has torn up any policy with a hint of support for electric vehicles C despite his short-lived alliance with Teslas boss, Elon Musk. That has cost US carmakers including Ford and General Motors billions of dollars in abandoned investments and lost sales.
European and British manufacturers will still have to switch to electric sales, but carmakers including Volkswagen have expressed relief at the EUs changes. That will give them greater leeway to sell more hybrids, which combine a smaller battery with a polluting petrol engine.
Electric-focused carmakers have strongly opposed the changes, and some in the EV industry have argued that it will just leave the way clear for manufacturers from China, the rising EV manufacturing superpower .
Part of the Sunderland investment was to make sure it could sell more hybrids if needed. The new Leaf cars are now being manufactured on the same kilometre-long line that builds hybrid Qashqai and Juke models.
Weve future-proofed for the transition to fully electric vehicles C when the time comes, said Guy Reid, the engineering general manager at Sunderland, on a platform overlooking the battery conveyor belt. When we introduce more electric vehicles, we dont have to modify this facility again.
Each station completes 60 jobs an hour in order to be able to make up to 600,000 cars a year. However, in 2024 the plant made only 282,000 cars, down 14% from the year before.
The batteries themselves are manufactured next door, in a new plant built by the Chinese-owned company Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC ). As the new Leaf was launched, high-precision robotic arms stamped and trimmed battery cells to be assembled into packs, although only one out of four lines was operational as it waited for demand from Nissan to increase.
AESC has also had to scale back its ambitions for Sunderland. Its new battery factory is capable of making 15.8 gigawatt hours (GWh) of batteries a year, enough for about 300,000 electric cars, but well short of initial plans for 38GWh .
Nissans change in direction is not just following the global automotive mood. It is in the middle of a third turnaround plan after years of leadership turmoil.
The companys former chief executive Carlos Ghosn tried to make an alliance of Frances Renault, Nissan and Japans Mitsubishi into the worlds biggest carmaker. However, he was arrested in 2018. He dramatically fled house arrest , leaving behind years of leadership chaos at Nissan, and an abandonment of world-spanning ambitions.
Nevertheless, in 2023 Makoto Uchida, one of Ghosns successors, had enough confidence to pledge only electric sales in Europe by 2030. He said : Nissan will make the switch to full electric by 2030 in Europe C we believe it is the right thing to do for our business, our customers and for the planet.
Sunderland was a key part of that plan. Nissan also said that year it was considering three electric models : a new Leaf hatchback, plus replacements for the Juke and Qashqai crossover SUVs (although the latter has yet to be confirmed).
Securing the new electric models in Sunderland was seen as a huge priority for the previous Conservative government C partly to avoid a rerun of 2016, when the plant became a symbol of the potential economic harms of Brexit. The government secretly agreed to give state aid worth 0561m .
Brexit is no longer the main concern of the car industry, but carmakers are still able to win significant support.
State aid disclosures show that Boris Johnsons government in 2022 gave Nissan 05101m towards the plant in direct grants for a new all-electric vehicle, one of the largest subsidies given to a manufacturer since the UKs departure from the EU. Nissan said it had invested 05450m itself in upgrading the plant.
Johnsons government said the grant was justified because it secures a strategically important internationally mobile investment. Carmakers often play different governments off against each other when seeking support for factories.
The support may have helped Sunderland avoid the axe when Uchida was forced out earlier this year. In May, Nissans current chief executive, Ivan Espinosa, announced the closure of seven factories, with the loss of 20,000 jobs C but spared the UK.
Yet Nissan still faces questions over whether it can fill the plant again. One suggestion aired by Espinosa was to build cars for Dongfeng, a Chinese manufacturer and partner in a joint venture with Nissan in Wuhan, China.
Messina said Nissan was still looking at opportunities, but added that there was nothing concrete. He insisted the companys main focus would be on winning back market share with new models, starting with the Leaf.
For the time being, we are looking at ourselves because we want to make sure we secure our own footprint with our vehicles, he said.
在日产汽车桑德兰工厂，车体悬挂在头顶的轨道上缓缓移动，工人们在不同工位装配零部件。新设立的电池"联姻工位"上，升降机将最关键的电池组件推入车体。机器人仅用不到一分钟便完成16颗螺栓的安装与紧固——如此高效的速度，确保了英国最大汽车工厂的流水线持续运转。
此次涉及的电动车是日产聆风（Leaf）的第三代车型。这家日本汽车制造商在投入4.5亿英镑进行升级后，于本周启动了该车型的生产。
在灯火通明的终检线旁，英国产业大臣克里斯·麦克唐纳称赞这项投资是英国工业向电动汽车转型的重要组成部分。目前，Leaf仍是英国唯一大规模生产的电动汽车。
然而，电动汽车的推出并未迎来最佳时机。全球汽车制造商纷纷推迟新车型发布，抱怨销量增速不及预期。
在Leaf车型发布的同一天，欧盟宣布将放宽原定2035年实施的汽油车和柴油车禁令，转而提议允许此后欧洲汽车销售量的10%继续使用内燃机。
日产汽车也加入了撤退行列。就在两年前，该公司还承诺到2030年在欧洲只销售电动汽车。然而，日产欧洲区总裁马西米利亚诺·梅西亚（Massimiliano Messina）在桑德兰表示，他不愿承诺完成这一转型的具体日期。
当被问及日产汽车何时将在欧洲实现全电动化时，他表示："如果非要给出一个具体数字，那很可能是错误的。" "我无法给出确切的时间节点，但我更有信心的是，我们谈论的是2050年。"
作为桑德兰产汽车的重要市场，欧盟成为全球延缓汽车行业转型浪潮中最后倒下的多米诺骨牌——此前政治影响力强大的汽车业已在全球范围内展开密集游说。英国于4月放宽了零排放汽车（ZEV）强制令，并表示将评估进一步调整方案；加拿大则在9月暂停了电动汽车销售强制令的实施。
与此同时，唐纳德·特朗普废除了所有支持电动汽车的政策——尽管他曾与特斯拉首席执行官埃隆·马斯克有过短暂合作。此举已使福特、通用汽车等美国车企因投资中断和销量下滑损失了数十亿美元。
欧洲和英国制造商仍需转向电动汽车销售，但包括大众在内的汽车制造商对欧盟的政策调整表示欣慰。新规将为他们提供更大灵活性，允许销售更多混合动力车型——这类车型配备小型电池，但仍搭载污染环境的燃油发动机。
以电动汽车为主的车企强烈反对这些变革，而电动汽车行业的一些人士认为，这将为来自中国——这一崛起的电动汽车制造强国——的制造商扫清道路。
桑德兰工厂的部分投资旨在确保必要时能够销售更多混合动力车型。如今，新款聆风（Leaf）汽车正与混合动力版逍客（Qashqai）和朱克（Juke）在同一条约一公里长的生产线上共线生产。
桑德兰工厂工程总经理盖伊·里德（Guy Reid）站在俯瞰电池输送带的平台上表示：“我们已经为向纯电动汽车的转型做好了未来保障——当时机成熟时，我们无需再对现有设施进行改造即可引入更多电动车型。”
为达到年产60万辆汽车的目标，每个工作站每小时需完成60项作业。然而2024年该工厂仅生产了28.2万辆汽车，较前一年下降了14%。
这些电池由中资企业汽车能源供应公司（AESC）在隔壁新建的工厂生产。随着新款聆风（Leaf）的推出，高精度机械臂正对电池单元进行冲压和修剪，以便组装成电池组。不过由于等待日产需求增长，四条生产线中仅有一条在运行。
AESC公司也不得不缩减其在桑德兰的宏伟计划。其新建的电池工厂年产能为15.8吉瓦时（GWh），可为约30万辆电动汽车提供电池，但远低于最初规划的38吉瓦时目标。
日产汽车的转型并非仅仅跟随全球汽车行业的潮流。在经历了多年的领导层动荡后，该公司正在实施第三轮复兴计划。
该公司前首席执行官卡洛斯·戈恩曾试图将法国雷诺、日本日产和三菱汽车组成的联盟打造为全球最大汽车制造商。然而他在2018年遭逮捕后戏剧性地逃离软禁，不仅给日产留下了长达数年的领导层混乱，更使这一横跨全球的宏伟抱负就此搁浅。
然而在2023年，卡洛斯·戈恩的继任者之一内田诚（Makoto Uchida）充满信心地承诺，到2030年将在欧洲实现全电动化销售。他表示："日产汽车将在2030年前于欧洲全面转向电动化——我们坚信这对企业、客户和地球都是正确的选择。"
桑德兰是该计划的关键组成部分。日产汽车同年还表示，正考虑推出三款电动车型：包括新一代聆风（Leaf）两厢车，以及逍客（Juke）和奇骏（Qashqai）跨界SUV的换代车型（不过后者尚未最终确认）。
确保桑德兰新型电动汽车项目落地，曾是英国前保守党政府的重中之重——部分原因是为避免2016年情景重演，当时该工厂成为英国脱欧潜在经济危害的象征。政府秘密同意提供价值6.1亿英镑的国家援助。
尽管英国脱欧已不再是汽车行业的主要关切，但汽车制造商仍能获得重要支持。
政府援助文件披露，鲍里斯·约翰逊领导的英国政府于2022年向日产汽车提供了1.01亿英镑的直接拨款，用于支持其工厂生产"全新纯电动车型"。这是英国脱欧以来对制造商提供的最大规模补贴之一。日产公司表示，其自身已投入4.5亿英镑用于该工厂的升级改造。
约翰逊政府表示，这笔拨款是合理的，因为它“确保了一项具有战略意义的国际流动投资”。汽车制造商在寻求建厂支持时，常常会让不同政府相互竞争。
今年早些时候内田诚被迫离职时，这种支持可能帮助桑德兰工厂避免了关停命运。5月，日产汽车现任首席执行官伊万·埃斯皮诺萨宣布关闭七家工厂并裁员2万人，但英国工厂得以幸免。
然而，日产汽车仍面临能否再次让该工厂满负荷运转的质疑。埃斯皮诺萨提出的一项建议是为东风汽车生产车辆——这家中国制造商是日产在武汉合资企业的合作伙伴。
梅希纳（Messina）表示，日产汽车仍在寻找“机遇”，但补充称目前“尚无具体计划”。他坚称，公司的首要任务是通过推出新车型赢回市场份额，首当其冲的便是聆风（Leaf）车型。
他表示：“目前我们正专注于自身发展，以确保我们的车辆能稳固市场地位。”
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