Japanese automaker Nissan plans to establish a £1bn ($1.38bn) electric vehicle (EV) hub in Sunderland, UK, which will include a 9GWh gigafactory from battery maker Envision AESC, as part of its shift toward electrification.
Nissan — which has been producing its Leaf EV since 2013 — will invest $423mn into the Nissan EV36Zero hub. Envision AESC will invest £450mn and the rest of the £1bn funding will come from Sunderland City Council.
The gigafactory will be built by Envision AESC at an initial capacity of 9GWh. The battery maker might invest a further £1.8bn in the project, which would enable its capacity to reach 25GWh — equivalent to 100,000 batteries per year.
Envision AESC already owns and operates a plant in Sunderland that has been producing Leaf batteries since 2012.
Nissan and Sunderland City Council are considering establishing up to 10 solar farms as part of the new hub, which would provide 132MW to the plant. Alongside this, Nissan and Envision AESC plan to include a 1MW battery storage facility that would "allow for excess energy generated during daylight hours to be captured and used at another time, helping to balance demand on the grid".
"The cars made in this plant, using batteries made just down the road at the UK's first at scale gigafactory, will have a huge role to play as we transition away from petrol and diesel cars and kick-start a domestic electric vehicle manufacturing base," UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said today.

