Nissan’s Sunderland battery factory to supply a third of UK capacity

Nissan’s new battery factory near Sunderland, due to start producing low-cobalt lithium ion batteries by the middle of the decade, has the potential eventually to pump out more than a third of the 100GWh battery capacity the entire UK will need in 2030.

The new factory, which even in its first phase will occupy the same space as 23 football pitches and stand taller than the Angel of the North, is due to open by 2026 with an initial battery capacity of 9GWh, enough to cater for a new post-Ariya EV that Nissan has already announced it will make in Sunderland later this decade.

Looking further ahead, Nissan is understood to have ample space to expand the EV360 facility much further, eventually producing up to 35GWh of batteries if demand warrants it.

The company, which has just announced that every future European Nissan will be 100% electric, has also revealed global plans to launch 27 electrified models, including 19 pure EVs, between now and 2030.

Meanwhile, Nissan has announced new dates in its rush to production of its own solid state battery design (labelled ASSB).

The company says the new-tech batteries will double the energy density of existing designs, and accept charge at three times the present rate, presenting designers with opportunities to use smaller, lighter batteries and change car proportions.

Nissan expects to have a solid state battery pilot plant working next year, and will have perfected a full-scale manufacturing process it 2026. It promises that at least one production model that uses ASSB batteries will be launched “somewhere in the world” by 2028.