Nissan and Honda are among the carmakers hardest hit by Brexit, as they have their European manufacturing hubs there. Today, the former's Sunderland Plant announced it had produced Qashqai crossover number 3 million.
The Qashqai's success surprises absolutely nobody, as it's the first real crossover, combining the best features of a car and an SUV. Sales have only increased over the years, and the Cashcow, as we like to call it, is the only crossover in the Top 5 European sales charts.
On a model-by-model basis, the first generation achieved 1,482,214 sales, the Qashqai+2 270,018 units and the current model added 1,250,175 sales to the roster.
The crossover played a crucial role in Nissan's sales success. Last year, the company achieved a new record in Europe: 762,574 vehicles including Datsun or 3.6% more than in 2016.
The Sunderland Plant produced 346,856 units of the urban crossover, 265,520 of which were sold in Europe. As a footnote, the Qashqai is now also offered in North America as the Rogue Sport.
Not only that, but the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance is now the biggest carmaker in the world with 10.6 million sales. Volkswagen might claim more, but it wants to include large trucks, which we think isn't fair. Sadly, the Duster hold the annual sales crown among all the different brands.
Paul Willcox, chairman of Nissan Europe, said: "2017 was another record-breaking year for Nissan Europe, and 2018 has started the same way. The Qashqai’s achievement of reaching 3,000,000 vehicles produced in 10 years is a significant milestone, while the October launch of the new and eagerly awaited Nissan LEAF has seen record-breaking pre-orders of one every 10 minutes.”
In October 2016, Nissan announced that production of an all-new, third-generation Qashqai will also be at Sunderland. So despite Brexit, the Cashcow will still be made in Britain. The same factory also assembles the second-generation Leaf, the Juke and Infiniti's premium Q30 compact.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News