Nissan’s gigafactory announcement is welcome, but more must be done to save the UK car industry

Ben Chapman explains why manufacturers need local battery production at scale to secure the industry’s future

Boris Johnson during his visit to the Nissan plant in Sunderland after its announcement (PA)

Nissan’s investment in a UK battery factory to supply its electric vehicles or EVs – has been hailed by the government as a “vote of confidence” in the country.

It is part of a £1bn package that is expected to support 6,000 jobs, which is undoubtedly good news for the UK car industry. However, it needs to be the first of several such announcements if the future of the wider sector and tens of thousands more jobs are to be secured.

Currently, around one in 10 new cars sold in the UK are electric. To meet the government’s climate commitments, all new cars need to electric by 2030, when the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles is set to be banned.