The project has been launched with an initial £1 billion investment by Nissan and its partners Envision AESC, a global player in battery technology, and Sunderland City Council. 

Nissan President and Chief Executive Officer, Makoto Uchida said: "This project comes as part of Nissan's pioneering efforts to achieve carbon neutrality throughout the entire lifecycle of our products. 

“Our comprehensive approach includes not only the development and production of EVs, but also the use of on-board batteries as energy storage and their reuse for secondary purposes.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson added: "Nissan's announcement to build its new-generation all-electric vehicle in Sunderland, alongside a new gigafactory from Envision-AESC, is a major vote of confidence in the UK and our highly-skilled workers in the North East.”

As part of the announcement, Nissan will invest up to £423 million to produce a new-generation all-electric vehicle in the UK.

Designed for global markets, UK production will be exported to the European markets traditionally served by Nissan's Sunderland plant. 

The new crossover will be built on the Alliance CMF-EV platform, with a forecasted production capacity of up to 100,000 units to be installed.

Production in Sunderland will create 909 new jobs at the plant, and more than 4500 in the UK supply chain.

As part of the project, Envision AESC will invest £450 million to build the UK's first gigafactory on the International Advanced Manufacturing Park, powered by renewable energy and next-generation battery technology.

The new gigafactory will create 750 jobs and safeguard the jobs of 300 current employees.

Lei Zhang, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Envision Group, said: "This commitment builds on our long-term partnership with Nissan to achieve our global ambition to make high performance, longer range batteries for EVs affordable and accessible for millions more motorists.

"Growth in demand could bring future investment of up to £1.8 billion, additional capacity of 25GWh and 4500 jobs by 2030. 

“This will put the North East at the heart of a new EV hub in the UK, collaborating on R&D around the whole battery lifecycle, from storage, to second life use, V2G smart charging and closed loop recycling."