Nissan to build new vehicle
Nissan says it will invest £223 million ($413.8 million) at its Sunderland plant in the UK to build a new, small crossover vehicle there starting December 2006.
The part-minivan, part-hatchback model based on the Qashqai concept unveiled in Geneva last year is the second new model in six months that Nissan has said it would manufacture at the Sunderland plant.
Nissan, Japan’s second-biggest carmaker and owned 44 per cent by France’s Renault, said the move would add 200 jobs to the 4,100-strong workforce.
Initial production of the unnamed model will be around 130,000 units a year, bringing the factory’s total annual production to 400,000 units. The vehicle, which was designed and developed in Britain, will hit showrooms in 2007.
More investments
Toyota Motor Corp is planning to raise its investment in Turkey, but the level of incentives is still inadequate, the head of Toyota’s Turkish arm said.
The Japanese group, the world’s second-biggest automaker, has already invested $951.7 million in Turkey and was the country’s biggest exporter last year, with a volume of $1.86 billion.
Kazuhiro Kobayashi, chief executive officer of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey (TMMT), said the importance given to Turkey by Toyota was evident from its exclusive production there of the Corolla Verso model.
“In the automobile sector, you should continuously make investments to keep capability. We will increase our investments in Turkey,” he said in an interview, though he declined to give a figure.
Higher sales expected
German premium carmaker BMW says it expects the relaunch of its 3-Series to lead to an increase in deliveries of its best-selling model in 2005.
“We will end the year 2005 with more 3-Series sold than in the previous year,” chief executive Helmut Panke said in Valencia, Spain, during the premiere of the new revamped saloon.
He said the group aimed to sell roughly 2 million 3-Series saloons over the period of the new generation’s life cycle, compared to 1.9 million for the older 3-Series saloon.
Overall, BMW sold a total of about 3 million units of the previous fourth-generation 3-Series models, including the estate, coupe and cabrio versions.
