Nissan has started production of the new Nissan Juke model at its Sunderland plant.
The firm has already received more than 22,500 pre-orders for the crossover across Europe after the order books were opened in June.
Nissan expects to produce up to 100,000 Jukes each year at Sunderland, making it the second highest-volume model produced at the plant behind the Qashqai.
The majority of Jukes produced in Sunderland will be exported into mainland Europe and the remainder will be distributed to dealers across the UK and Ireland.
The decision to make the Juke in Sunderland has safeguarded 1100 jobs out of a workforce of 4900 at the plant, Nissan claims, and represents £57 million worth of investment in the facility. It replaces the Micra on one of its two Sunderland production lines and will be built alongside the Note.
Nissan is hoping that a plant record of 400,000 units will be completed in the 2010 financial year as a result of the decision to place the Juke in Sunderland.
The Nissan Leaf car has also been confirmed for production at the plant from early 2013. The factory was established in 1984 and produced one in three cars built in the UK in 2009.
The Juke will go on sale at the start of next month costing from £12,795.
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Re: Nissan Juke production starts
one word....... UGLY, and i have seen a number of them in the metal
Re: Nissan Juke production starts
Myself and my wife were lucky enough to be invited to the launch event at Nissans Sunderland plant yesterday. We were treated to a tour of the plant, including a walk along the Juke production line with some being lucky enough to sit in a Juke whilst it was started for the first time and ran through diagnostics. The day ended with the PR event officially announcing the start of production for the Juke where Trevor Mann and John Hayes MP spoke.
Nissan put us up in a nice hotel for the night, paid for our travel and fed & watered us! Feel free to check out some of my pics from the event http://www.flickr.com/photos/iamdabe/sets/72157624694506359/
Re: Nissan Juke production starts
It is always risky judging new models from photos , so I will not comment until I have seen one.I am not overly excited at the prospect , however.