Nissan of Japan has been proud of its conventional car manufacturing facility in Sunderland UK because it is one of the most efficient in the world.
The city and the Sunderland Partnership have created a strategy to transform the formerly blighted city in the North of England through physical and cultural regeneration, combined with a focus on jobs, education and health improvement.
This includes new jobs and positioning the city as a leader in new markets. One example has been encouraging Nissan to select its Sunderland plant to build its latest Leaf EV from 2013, as part of the Low Carbon Vehicle programme. It will be the only source of the Leaf car in the whole of Europe. Sunderland is also now a key city in the £ 11m Joined-Cities Plan for a network that will allow plug-in vehicles to be charged anywhere.
In addition, Toyota, in its car factory in Burnaston Derbyshire, UK, will make the total global production of its new Auris mild hybrid car. Toyota predicts that 40% of global Auris sales will be of this hybrid version. After all, it has no price premium over the two liter diesel alternative. During development, it was so quiet that it facilitated finding and removing sources of noise in the conventional version. The power train is based on the world's best selling hybrid, the Prius and the battery is once again a nickel metal hydride type. One reviewer was delighted to obtain 62 mpg during "brisk driving".
In June 2010, Toyota has announced that it has manufactured the first hybrid vehicle engine outside Japan, at its Deeside facility in North Wales. The Japanese automaker built the 1.8 litre VVT-i petrol engine for the Auris Hybrid.
Toyota stated that the powerplant, which is integral to the Hybrid Synergy Drive system, is wholly produced at the North Wales facility. Raw aluminium is smelted and cast on-site, prior to machining, assembly and testing of the finished unit. The completed engines are then shipped to Toyota's Burnaston car plant in Derbyshire for installation.Toyota Manufacturing's (TMUK) Deeside operation opened in 1992, principally to supply engines to Burnaston, which began production the same year. It currently has more than 500 people on site, working two shifts five days a week, building both the 1.8 engine for Auris Hybrid and Toyota's 1.6 litre Valvematic petrol engine. In 2009 the Deeside plant produced 130,247 units.
Employees from the Deeside facility prepared for production by travelling to Toyota's Shimoyama factory − the 'mother plant' for hybrid engines − to learn first-hand from their Japanese colleagues about the specific requirements of hybrid-engine manufacturing.
Richard Kenworthy, TMUK general manager for engine manufacturing, said: 'This is the first time that a Toyota hybrid engine has been made outside Japan and we take great pride in having that opportunity.'
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