Nissan recently celebrated the start of production of the new Nissan Note at its Sunderland plant. Already the UK’s biggest ever car plant, the new Note is set to boost production even further in the country’s North East following a £125m investment by Nissan, secured for the UK with a £9.3m grant from the UK Government’s Regional Growth Fund. The plant is also preparing to roll out Infinitis, starting with a compact model.
In addition to vehicle assembly, the new Note has brought additional work to Sunderland and its supply chain in axle production, cylinder head casting, camshaft machining and engine assembly. In total, the new Note is responsible for 2,000 new jobs in the UK car industry, including 400 staff at Nissan’s workforce at Sunderland, taking the number of British jobs supported by Nissan to more than 35,000.
Tailored for European buyers, Nissan says that the new Note has benefited from extensive European development, with engineering and development work completed at the Nissan Technical Centre Europe (NTCE) in both UK and Spain.
Available in Visia, Acenta and Tekna variants in the UK, the new Note will get two 1.2 litre 3-cylinder petrols (80 PS/110 Nm and 98 PS/142 Nm, the latter supercharged) and a Renault-sourced 1.5 litre turbo diesel that emits 95 grams of CO2 per km and returns 3.6 litres per 100 km.
Making its debut on the top-spec Tekna version is Nissan’s Safety Shield bundle of systems, comprising Blind Spot Warning, Lane Departure Warning and Moving Object Detection. MOD works with Around View Monitor to enhance the driver’s field of vision. When the system detects something (or someone) moving behind the car, an audible and visual alert is given.
Around View Monitor combines the feeds from cameras mounted on the front grille, tailgate and both door mirrors to project an overhead 360-degree helicopter view of the car and its surroundings. The camera image is constantly scanned for dirt and if need be, a jet of water and then compressed air is fired at the lens to clean and dry it.
Shown for the first time at this year’s Geneva show, the B-segment hatchback has already caught the attention of customers, with Nissan dealers across Europe taking more than 14,000 pre-orders since order books opened in July.
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