UK Edition
When it comes to Britain's long and fraught relationship with Europe, Nissan has never been shy in making its views known.
In 2013, the Japanese car maker’s then-boss Carlos Ghosn warned that if the UK left the European Union, Nissan would be forced to “reconsider” its future in Britain. In 2019, the firm said that its vast Sunderland plant would "not be sustainable" after a no-deal Brexit. A host of other warnings over the past five years put staff - and ministers - on notice that jobs and investment were at risk.
But Nissan's 6,000 workers in the North East can now breathe a little easier, along with thousands of others down the supply chain.
On Thursday Ashwani Gupta, the company's chief operating officer, described Brexit as an "opportunity" as he announced a £1bn deal with partner Envision AESC to build Britain's first electric car battery gigafactory
He said Nissan would spend up to £423m to produce a new-generation all-electric crossover vehicle at the Sunderland plant, where it already produces the LEAF electric vehicle and the Qashqai crossover SUV.
Envision, meanwhile, will spend £450m to build a battery factory next door to the plant.
The move will create more than 6,000 jobs at the factory and its suppliers, who together will make batteries to power up to 100,000 electric cars a year.
"This project is the demonstration of the renaissance of the British car industry," Gupta said. He also lavished praise on the Government for contributing £100m of taxpayer funds.
It is a dramatic change of tone from a business with a sharp desire to engage in politics. Nissan first invested in Britain in 1984, in a deal brokered by Margaret Thatcher as she sought to bolster the country's ailing manufacturing industry.
Since then it has openly lobbied the Government of the day on favoured causes - most notoriously over the euro, when Mr Ghosn repeatedly asked why the business should “take a currency risk with the pound” when it could be “risk-free” in the single currency.
The company then pushed Boris Johnson hard to secure a trade deal with the EU, warning the UK plant could be ditched in a no-deal Brexit.
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) says investment in the sector “declined dramatically” in the years after the referendum because of uncertainty around the future.
The prospect of tariffs on cars and components travelling between Britain and the EU without a trade deal raised fears that Sunderland would go from being one of the most competitive plants in Nissan’s portfolio to one of the least.
But the fog has finally cleared after the EU trade deal provided tariff-free, quota-free access.
“The Government and the Prime Minister personally went into bat for the automotive sector and so the deal does have certain elements which help automotive trade,” says Hawes.
“[The deal] allows you to put investment in the UK back onto the agenda in global headquarters.”
Kevin Fitzpatrick, Nissan’s vice-president of manufacturing for Africa, Middle East, Europe, India and Oceania, says the nail-biting climax in last year’s Brexit talks was “very worrying”.
“But it’s amazing how supportive Japan has been. They don’t make this kind of investment lightly. They trusted the British Government and it delivered.”
Fitzpatrick, who was one of the first 22 employees Nissan took on when it set up in the UK in 1985, says the company could not get the investment “over the line until we got clarity”.
“This is the second biggest decision in the history of Nissan in the UK. The biggest was setting up here in 1985.”
With the levelling up drive in train and scrutiny over the manufacturing impact of Brexit, ministers are perhaps more eager than ever to secure a bright future for the sector.
Investment Minister Lord Grimstone has set his sights on £8bn of investment being planned by automotive giants in the coming months in what could drive a revival of Britain's sector.
“Every single one of them I talk to - all of them - are changing their production schedules, bringing forward new models and re-configuring their whole global footprint,” he told The Sunday Telegraph last month. “This is a huge opportunity for the UK.”
The agreement could be the first of a slew as the sector gears up for a crucial date set out in the UK-EU trade agreement and the climate transition.
“The trade agreement between the UK and the EU also really fired the gun on the race,” says Professor David Bailey, an expert at the University of Birmingham.
“Because by the end of 2026, an electric vehicle made in the UK or the EU has to have a battery from the UK or the EU to avoid tariffs between the two. The Nissan investment gets us off the starting grid in that race but EU countries are several laps ahead of us.”
Bailey says there are “big investment decisions coming out” that will prove crucial for the UK sector and could include Stellantis at Ellesmere Port and Jaguar Land Rover next.
“I would expect to see more investment coming in because there's not been enough announced so far,” adds Professor Peter Wells, director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research.
“We could have maybe even 1,000 gigawatts of battery manufacturing capability across Europe by 2030… there's an investment race going on and the UK was a little late into that race.”
Back on the shop floor in Sunderland, there is relief for Nissan staff after years of Brexit threats and uncertainty.
“The announcement means long-term job security for me and my family,” says Luke Lyons, a Nissan worker.
Caroline Middleton, who has been at the company for 11 years, says there’s a “sense of pride and purpose” knowing that a new factory and Nissan model are coming.
“Outside of the business there’s a buzz when there’s an announcement about a new model and this one shows we don’t do things by half. This means Nissan is embedded here for a long time.”
Chinese company which has proved Britain's battery white knight
By Rachel Millard
Car industry bosses have been warning with increasing fervor about the damage that could be done to the UK if it fails to develop its own battery manufacturing capacity.
On Thursday a solution for Britain came not in the form of American billionaire Elon Musk, but his less well known Chinese counterpart Lei Zhang.
The 44-year-old is chief executive, founder and owner of the $8bn (£6bn) Shanghai-based clean energy group Envision, Nissan's partner on its new £1bn electric vehicle battery hub in Sunderland.
Announcing the deal, Mr Zhang praised Boris Johnson as "visionary prime minister" for his focus on green energy, and suggested Envision might even invest further in the UK, making wind turbines.
"We are offering the vaccine for the climate crisis," he told reporters.
"Every country needs it, all of humanity needs it."
Despite its global reach in wind power, solar power, batteries and internet technology to help renewable energy, Envision is not a household name.
Mr Zhang set up the company in eastern China in 2007, with just ten employees. He claims the business draws on the "diversity, inclusiveness and liberal values" he picked up while living in the UK for five years, where he did a Masters degree at the London School of Economics and stints working at Total and Barclays.
Envision's stated aim is to "solve the challenges of a sustainable future" and "create a world of beautiful energy."
The company started expanding overseas in the early part of the 2010s, signing a deal to work on infrastructure in New Zealand during a state visit by Chinese premier Xi Jinping to the country in 2014.
In March 2019, its battery division Envision AESC, which is based in Japan, bought Nissan's electric battery operations including its Sunderland battery plant.
Under Envision's ownership, the plant has continued to produce batteries for the Nissan Leaf and Nissan's eNV200 produced in Barcelona.
Envision is now in discussions with the UK government about support for its initial investment of £450m to build the new 9GWh plant, although it declined to reveal details about those discussions or what form support might take.
Its plans have been welcomed, although they come at a time of heightened sensitivity about Chinese involvement in UK infrastructure and Beijing's grip on global battery supplies.
Representatives for Mr Zhang say he is not a member of any political party.
He seems to be a man of influence, however. A prospectus published by Envision in 2018 said that he was elected deputy director of China's Thousand Talents Plan in 2010.
Last year, FBI director Christopher Wray claimed that, through talent recruitment programs "like the so-called Thousand Talents Program, the Chinese government tries to entice scientists to secretly bring our knowledge and innovation back to China."
The company said he is no longer a member of the program.
Separately, Mr Zhang joins several bigwigs of the energy world on the Energy Transitions Commission, a coalition of energy industry bosses trying to cut carbon emissions.
City grandees Sir Mark Moody-Stuart and Adair Turner are both on Envision's advisory board. Following in the footsteps of many successful businessmen, in 2018 Envision bought a majority stake in Virgin's Formula E electric car racing team.
Richard Branson said Virgin and Envision shared a vision to "positively impact lives."
Asked yesterday whether Europe could catch up with other parts of the world in the race to develop electric car batteries, Mr Zhang was philosophical.
"It's a long journey, it's a marathon, not a 100m race, and it's really just started," he said.
His big bet on Sunderland has just given the UK an edge.