Tuesday, July 21, 2009

£200 MILLION BOOST FOR UK MOTOR INDUSTRY

THE UK motor industry was given a huge boost yesterday when Nissan announced plans to invest £200million to build batteries for electric cars, creating 350 new jobs.

Gordon Brown and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson welcomed the good news for the Japanese firm’s plant in Sunderland during a tour of the site.

The factory, which shed 1,200 jobs in January, has beaten competition from other Nissan plants in Europe for the work. It is now a contender to manufacture the group’s new “greener” electric vehicles.

Mr Brown hailed the ­investment as “great news for the local economy”.

Mr Mandelson said a “low carbon economic area” would be established in the North-east.

It will include a training centre that will ­specialise in the manufacture and maintenance of ultra-low carbon vehicles.

Over the next two years, 750 charging points will be installed across the region.

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