Nissan Qashqai hits three MILLION mark at Nissan’s Sunderland Plant

Nissan has announced that its Sunderland Plant has now produced more than three million Qashqais, as Nissan post its best ever European sales in 2017.

One of the best decisions Nissan ever made was to conclude that what families really wanted was a perfect urban SUV which felt like a hatchback to drive. And so the Nissan Qashqai was born.

The Qashqai isn’t perfect – and newer competitors are barking at its heels – but in many ways it offers absolutely the best balance of abilities in its sector – even after more than a decade – and sales bear that out.

Fortunately for the UK economy, the Qashqai – Nissan’s most successful European model ever – is built at Nissan’s Sunderland Plant, and it has now produced more than three million Qashqais since production began a bit more than a decade ago, 346,856 in 2017 alone.

Those Qashqai production numbers have helped Nissan to its best ever year in Europe, with sales of 762,574 vehicles in 2017 (Nissan and Datsun) – up 3.8 per cent on 2016 – of which around a third – 265,520 – were Qashqais built in Sunderland.

Paul Wilcox, Nissan Europe Chairman, said:

2017 was another record-breaking year for Nissan Europe, and 2018 has started the same way. The Qashqai’s achievement of reaching 3,000,000 vehicles produced in 10 years is a significant milestone, while the October launch of the new and eagerly awaited Nissan LEAF has seen record-breaking pre-orders of one every 10 minutes.

But it’s not just Qashqai’s playing a role in the success of Nissan’s Sunderland Plant, it also builds the LEAF, Juke and Infiniti Q30 and QX30 models in what is the UK’s biggest car plant of all time.

No wonder Nissan got a ‘Brexit Letter’ from the government.