Nissan Leaf: Production in Sunderland is back at full capacity
Image: Nissan
Production of the third-generation Nissan Leaf for the European market has resumed at full capacity at the plant in Sunderland, England. Earlier, technical issues caused delays in launching this important electric vehicle model, according to Automotive News.
According to market analysts at Dataforce, only 1,937 Leaf units were registered in Europe as of August. This is despite production starting at Sunderland back in December of last year. The Japanese manufacturer has not yet released any details regarding the exact causes of the delays.
Jordi Vila, Nissan Europe’s brand chief, described the reasons for the delay to media on September 18 as “very technical,” according to Automotive News. “Most of production is now underway,” the manager said.
The Sunderland plant is set to achieve an annual capacity of 100,000 Leaf vehicles, helping to revitalize the facility. With the end of production for the previous generation in 2024, Nissan temporarily lacked an electric car in the European compact segment.
In addition to the Leaf, Sunderland also manufactures the compact SUV Qashqai and the small SUV crossover Juke. Starting next year, the compact SUV Kicks is expected to join once Juke’s internal combustion engine production ends. Additionally, Nissan plans to build the first all-electric version of the Juke at this site starting in 2027.
According to Automotive News, the Sunderland plant produced only 273,174 cars in 2025, remaining well below its annual capacity of over 500,000 vehicles. Nissan announced in May that it would shut down one of its two production lines to cut costs. Additionally, there is a non-binding intent agreement with Chery for assembling the Chinese manufacturer’s models in Sunderland.
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Thomas Langenbucher is an expert in electromobility with experience in the automotive and financial industries. Since 2011, he has been covering electric vehicles, sustainable technologies, and mobility solutions for ecomento.de. Learn more.
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