Nissan has built the 250,000 Leaf electric vehicle at its Sunderland plant in the United Kingdom, almost a decade after the first-generation model entered production at the site.
The original Nissan Leaf—questionably labeled “the world’s first mass-market electric vehicle” by the automaker—first rolled off the Sunderland factory’s assembly line in March 2013.
The Leaf received a much improved second-generation model in October 2017, the model that is currently on the market. In November 2021, Nissan teased the Leaf’s successor with the Chill-Out Concept, which previews a CMF-EV platform-based crossover coupe that will be made in Sunderland from around 2025.
“Passing a quarter of a million Nissan LEAF is a tremendous milestone, and demonstrates the electric vehicle manufacturing expertise we have built up at our plant over the past decade.”
Alan Johnson, Vice President Manufacturing at Nissan Sunderland Plant
5 Photos
To mark the event, the 250,000th Nissan Leaf is powering the Sunderland site’s Christmas display, demonstrating its ability to act as a mobile plant. The EV’s battery will supply electricity for the lights on the 32-foot (9.7-meter) Christmas tree and its shimmering reindeer using V2X technology—dubbed V2X-MAS TREE for this occasion.
“This year we have completely electrified the plant’s line-up with the new versions of Qashqai and Juke launched, so lighting up the Christmas tree with our original EV is a spectacular and appropriate way to end 2022.”
Alan Johnson, Vice President Manufacturing at Nissan Sunderland Plant
The Nissan Leaf‘s vehicle-to-grid capability turns it into a mobile energy hub, enabling drivers to store electricity in their vehicle’s battery and feed it to the grid, their building, or their Christmas Tree, when needed.
Sometimes called vehicle-to-building or vehicle-to-everything (V2X), vehicle-to-grid capability allows electric vehicles to be fully integrated into the electricity grid and help improve the grid’s capability to handle renewable power and manage energy more efficiently.
Besides the Leaf, the Sunderland plant currently makes the Qashqai, now offered with Nissan‘s e-Power system, and the Juke, now equipped with an advanced hybrid powertrain.
In 2021, Nissan’s Sunderland factory was announced as the home of EV36ZERO, a £1 billion ($1.2 billion) flagship electric vehicle manufacturing ecosystem bringing together electric vehicles, renewable energy and battery production.
