Car manufacturer Nissan are reported to be in advance talks to develop a major new gigafactory in Sunderland which will develop EV batteries.

The plant in Sunderland could provide annual production of up to 20 gigawatt-hours in rated battery capacity – which could power 200,000 cars at the top end of today’s EV marketplace according to reports in both the Financial Times and Construction News.

A Nissan spokesman said: “Having established EV and battery production in the UK in 2013 for the Nissan Leaf, our Sunderland plant has played a pioneering role in developing the electric-vehicle market. As previously announced, we will continue to electrify our line-up as part of our global journey towards carbon neutrality, however we have no further plans to announce at this time.”

If constructed the new plant would increase production capacity in Sunderland tenfold as production capacity currently stands at 1.9GWh per year.

The Sunderland battery factory was initially set up by Nissan in a joint venture with Japanese manufacturers NEC and Tokin, but was sold in 2018 to Shanghai-based Envision Group. In November last year, the government’s Innovate UK agency awarded £750,000 to Envision AESC, the Japan-based subsidiary that currently runs the factory, to fund a feasibility study for a new gigafactory in the UK.