An employee fits parts to the passenger doors of new Nissan automobiles as they travel along the production line at Nissan Motor vehicle assembly plant in Sunderland, U.K.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Nissan on Thursday announced plans to build a £1 billion ($1.38 billion) “gigafactory” in Sunderland, U.K, in a major boost to the country’s electric vehicle plans.
The Japanese automaker said it was launching the project — dubbed Nissan EV36Zero — along with Envision AESC, battery technology company, and Sunderland City Council.
Nissan, which has been manufacturing in Sunderland for 35 years, said 1,650 new jobs would be created at the hub: 900 at Nissan and 750 at Envision AESC.
So-called gigafactories — a term coined by Tesla CEO Elon Musk — are facilities that produce batteries for electric vehicles on a large scale.
This is a developing story and will be updated shortly.
