UK – Installation has been completed slightly over 18 months since groundbreaking and at a cost of £37m ($45.6m). At full capacity, the extra-large press will be able to produce 2.5m panels per year for the vehicles built at the plant: the Qashqai, Juke, Leaf, Q30 and QX30.“The new press is a fantastic piece of cutting-edge technology which sets up the next generation of production at Nissan Sunderland Plant,” commented Kevin Fitzpatrick, Nissan's divisional vice-president, European Manufacturing.
The machine is ten metres tall, on top of foundations that are 6.5 metres deep, and can press with a force over 5,200 tonnes. It is the largest of the eight press lines at the plant and the first of its type in the Renault-Nissan Alliance. The OEM added 6,780 sq.m to the covered space at Sunderland for its new press line and the associated storage area, boosting the total to 362,000 sq.m.
The extra-large press is part of an ongoing, £650m programme at Sunderland which will take Nissan’s total investment in the plant beyond £4 billion.