:00:13. > :00:21.Nissan - the jewel in the crown of the north-east economy. Once
:00:21. > :00:25.clouded with suspicion, it's now Europe's most productive car plant.
:00:25. > :00:32.We go behind the scenes as it gambles on becoming the first mass
:00:32. > :00:36.producer of all-electric cars. Nissan are taking a huge risk with
:00:36. > :00:40.the Leaf because they are the first to market, they've bet the farm on
:00:40. > :00:50.it, and it's extremely brave. ask, are Nissan's electric dreams
:00:50. > :00:57.
:00:57. > :01:05.on full charge or do they risk OK, so help yourself to hi-viz
:01:05. > :01:09.jackets here. A critical day for these people. It could be the start
:01:09. > :01:14.of a job which will bring security and the chance to be part of an
:01:14. > :01:17.extraordinary north-east industrial story. Every single vehicle you see
:01:17. > :01:24.in this plant is a customer's order. There is not a single car that we
:01:24. > :01:31.make that will stand in a compound and wait to be sold. For Percy,
:01:31. > :01:34.it's a chance for a new career after leaving the Army. I was in
:01:34. > :01:38.the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers so it's generally a
:01:38. > :01:43.mechanical background that I've been in the past 24 years. Percy is
:01:43. > :01:46.one of hundreds who want to work here. With one in 10 people out of
:01:46. > :01:53.work on Wearside, Nissan can be choosy about who it hires, With at
:01:53. > :01:56.least 10 applicants for every new It takes 59 seconds for the body to
:01:56. > :02:04.go past. Not 58 seconds, or one minute, exactly 59 seconds. You
:02:04. > :02:08.won't see them running and you won't see them standing still. How
:02:08. > :02:12.long do you think it takes us to put that dash in? Someone want to
:02:12. > :02:15.give me a guess? 20 seconds? 30? 30 to 50 seconds, yes? Settle down and
:02:15. > :02:20.have a look. Here we go, as you pass it through the right side
:02:20. > :02:23.front door, I'll start counting, ready? One, two. Two seconds. So
:02:23. > :02:27.two seconds is all that it takes to get this dashboard in there. It's
:02:28. > :02:30.pretty efficient. I was pretty surprised. It shook me a little bit,
:02:31. > :02:35.to see just how quickly these things come together. 3.5 hours to
:02:35. > :02:39.produce a car. You've got the timescale, you got a job to do, you
:02:39. > :02:43.know exactly what your job is, and you've just got to get on and do it.
:02:43. > :02:47.It was like going into a different world, really, it was like going
:02:47. > :02:51.into Santa's workshop. All these people working at such a high level
:02:51. > :02:54.for such a long period of time is just inconceivable, really. You see
:02:54. > :02:59.this white stuff they're putting on the car there? That's to stop bird
:02:59. > :03:01.strike - that's the posh word for it! This year, Nissan broke all
:03:01. > :03:07.production records at its Sunderland plant, when the 7
:03:07. > :03:11.millionth car rolled off the line. And that, gentlemen, is all there
:03:12. > :03:15.is to making a Nissan. The time from when you first come into this
:03:15. > :03:22.shop to going out the door and putting more than 4,500 parts in
:03:22. > :03:26.the car, 3.5 hours. And that, gentlemen, is all there is to it.
:03:26. > :03:31.Well, that's regular cars, but what about making - and selling - the
:03:31. > :03:35.new electric model? From a marketing point of view, it's an
:03:35. > :03:40.absolute nightmare. How do you sell a car like that into a market that
:03:40. > :03:50.is absolutely rigid with misinformation and preconceptions?
:03:50. > :04:00.Nissan makes one car every four minutes. More than 80 % go to
:04:00. > :04:01.
:04:01. > :04:11.It's a success story born out of industrial misery on Wearside 30
:04:11. > :04:13.
:04:13. > :04:16.We were close to the end of the decline in traditional industries
:04:16. > :04:26.and people were wondering how the city would make its living in
:04:26. > :04:26.
:04:26. > :04:28.future. And where would we get the jobs from? There was lots of angst.
:04:28. > :04:31.Unemployment in Sunderland specifically was growing rather
:04:31. > :04:41.alarmingly and in some ward areas, probably well in excess of 20 %
:04:41. > :04:47.John Bridge was working for the Northern Development Company when
:04:47. > :04:50.he heard a whisper that Nissan was looking to set up shop in Britain.
:04:50. > :04:54.I then go to Tokyo in early March 1981, and as it turned out, the
:04:54. > :05:03.first region in the whole of the UK that was able to make a substantial
:05:04. > :05:09.presentation to what was then known as the Nissan product team. There
:05:09. > :05:11.were fewer pickets outside Austin Rover were Cowley plant today...
:05:11. > :05:16.But Britain's poor record of industrial relations, particularly
:05:16. > :05:26.in carmaking, was putting off foreign investors. There were
:05:26. > :05:31.appalling things going on in the industry as a whole. It did come as
:05:31. > :05:34.a bit of a surprise to me that they were as open to doing a deal.
:05:34. > :05:44.Foreign car-makers in Britain had been talking more about reducing
:05:44. > :05:47.
:05:47. > :05:51.their operations or even leaving completely. They had major concerns
:05:51. > :05:54.about the state of the car industry in the UK at the time and they
:05:54. > :05:56.didn't want to if you like, to inherit those sort of
:05:56. > :05:59.characteristics, so a clean, green field, fresh start type of
:05:59. > :06:02.environment was what they were really looking for. Nissan's final
:06:02. > :06:09.choice will be from three sites - Sunderland, Humberside and Shotton.
:06:09. > :06:12.So against the odds, Nissan signed the deal to build cars in Britain.
:06:12. > :06:15.But where was still up for debate. The Japanese have told government
:06:15. > :06:19.officials that they will make a decision by the end of this month.
:06:19. > :06:22.It was a battle to land the big prize. So, why did Nissan choose a
:06:22. > :06:31.disused airfield on Wearside? Thatcher government said, OK, you
:06:31. > :06:34.can have this land, for agricultural prices. There was a
:06:34. > :06:37.lot of anecdotal stuff, things do the rounds like the blokes in
:06:37. > :06:43.Sunderland like a drink after work, but the blokes in the north-west
:06:43. > :06:46.like a drink during work. So, the Japanese must have been kind of
:06:46. > :06:49.dazzled at all of this contradictory information and to
:06:49. > :06:54.have made the decision they did was really, really difficult, but the
:06:55. > :06:57.government helped an awful lot. They may well have got some nods
:06:57. > :06:59.and winks from the construction industry which spreads obviously
:06:59. > :07:02.over the whole kingdom about where industrial relations and worker
:07:02. > :07:10.discipline was better than some other places. And I think that the
:07:10. > :07:19.north-east came out pretty well in Every connection was milked to
:07:19. > :07:21.curry favour. One of the stories that we heard was that there was a
:07:21. > :07:26.very famous battleship in the Japanese Navy, that was part of
:07:26. > :07:29.some big naval battle it had had with the Russian Empire. And they
:07:29. > :07:35.defeated the Russian Navy where they were expected to get trounced.
:07:35. > :07:42.And this big battleship was made in But, history can be a double-edged
:07:42. > :07:45.sword. The memories of what had happened to, particularly our
:07:45. > :07:54.prisoners of war in Japan, were still very real, they were very
:07:54. > :07:56.recent. These wounds were still raw. There was an element of saying that
:07:56. > :08:06.you couldn't trust the Japanese, that we should maintain a hostile
:08:06. > :08:07.
:08:07. > :08:11.attitude towards them. To think that we had all that trouble with
:08:11. > :08:14.the Japanese, and they'd been so cruel to us, and there, we were
:08:14. > :08:21.going to help them to set up a factory, well, it just didn't seem
:08:21. > :08:24.right to any of our prisoners of war. Len Gibson spent all of his
:08:24. > :08:29.Second World War in a Japanese prison camp. Many of his old
:08:29. > :08:33.comrades protested against Nissan. They had little placards made
:08:33. > :08:42.around their chests. They daubed paint on some of the walls, they
:08:42. > :08:47.found one of the councillors and bombarded him with questions. And
:08:47. > :08:51.gave him a hard time. Despite the opposition, Nissan chose the north-
:08:51. > :08:56.east. The Japanese car-makers, Nissan, finally announced where
:08:56. > :09:06.they are building their British plant. It is to be at Washington
:09:06. > :09:09.
:09:09. > :09:12.TRANSLATION: I feel that this is a most important occasion. The start
:09:12. > :09:19.of a new relationship with the people of Sunderland and the north-
:09:19. > :09:25.Three decades on, Nissan is ploughing millions into another
:09:25. > :09:31.massive leap into the unknown. It's June 2012, and they're working
:09:31. > :09:35.around the clock to make the changes needed to build the Leaf.
:09:36. > :09:40.We try to make it as simple as possible. You will not put new men
:09:40. > :09:45.into a line to build the Leaf vehicle. You will use the people
:09:45. > :09:52.that build the Nissan Qashqai, to also build the Leaf. Here, staff
:09:52. > :09:56.are being trained on how to fit the battery. We don't know what to
:09:56. > :10:00.expect. We don't know if it's going to sell well, or if it's not, but
:10:00. > :10:03.it is exciting in that way. If it does sell well, we are the first
:10:03. > :10:07.ones to kick it off, so everyone always thinks that Nissan were the
:10:07. > :10:11.first ones to go forward. The Leaf, make no mistake about it, is
:10:11. > :10:13.compromised because it's only got a 100 mile range and it costs too
:10:13. > :10:16.much money although they have recently reduced the price, and it
:10:16. > :10:20.really takes too long to charge, but that's a malaise that affects
:10:20. > :10:27.all electric cars. Nissan believes everyone should be able to drive
:10:27. > :10:31.the future, today. In terms of the way it drives, and the way it looks
:10:31. > :10:36.in its interior, it's really very good indeed. It's the market leader.
:10:36. > :10:43.So it gets good reviews, but it costs more than �20,000. And that's
:10:43. > :10:45.not all. When you're making a petrol car, I don't have to think
:10:45. > :10:55.about where the nearest petrol station is. With electric vehicles,
:10:55. > :10:56.
:10:56. > :10:58.it is important to know where the nearest charging stations are.
:10:58. > :11:01.Nissan is working with the British government on plug-in places to
:11:01. > :11:05.develop a charging infrastructure in the UK. Imagine a car factory
:11:05. > :11:09.where no-one ever goes on strike. And where no-one is made redundant
:11:09. > :11:13.either. Back in the 80s, it was industrial relations that needed a
:11:13. > :11:21.fresh approach. The managing director gets just the same as men
:11:21. > :11:24.on the line. My advice to them, all the way through, was to deal with
:11:24. > :11:27.their workforce inside the factory, in working hours, and not to allow
:11:27. > :11:37.meetings to take place in the car park or someone like that, outside
:11:37. > :11:39.
:11:39. > :11:44.working hours, because then they could be infiltrated by outsiders.
:11:44. > :11:53.And they understood quite clearly those messages. Or is this just a
:11:53. > :11:57.People were thinking, well, will we have any union deal? Yes, there was
:11:57. > :12:07.a lot of trepidation. There was a lot of people wondering how this
:12:07. > :12:08.
:12:08. > :12:12.would work out. Nissan insisted on having a one-union deal. I was
:12:12. > :12:15.lucky, really, because the union, I was in, it was the union that was
:12:15. > :12:18.in when Nissan came over, there was a lot of turmoil in the car
:12:18. > :12:22.industry with the unions, and I guess that one of the things Nissan
:12:22. > :12:25.looked at was to sort of get an agreement with the one union and,
:12:25. > :12:32.that way, they could maybe get through difficulties, but it was a
:12:32. > :12:36.lot easier. At the operation in Washington, the royal couple
:12:36. > :12:41.painted in the eye of a traditional doll. So, the deal, sweetened by
:12:41. > :12:46.multi-million pound government subsidies, stayed on track. The
:12:46. > :12:48.plant finally opened in 1986, with ambition that appeared sky-high.
:12:48. > :12:51.believe the employees are determined to demonstrate that
:12:51. > :13:01.Nissan United Kingdom can, at the least, draw level with and then
:13:01. > :13:25.
:13:25. > :13:29.overtake the success and quality APPLAUSE. We were one of the first
:13:29. > :13:31.lines that she came to. At that time I was a team leader on the
:13:31. > :13:34.chassis section. This was responsible for basically, the
:13:34. > :13:37.underfloor of the vehicle. I was very young, 24 years old, probably
:13:37. > :13:41.couldn't remember what she said to me at the time, but it was a great
:13:41. > :13:44.day. Trevor Mann is now on Nissan's executive board based here in Japan.
:13:44. > :13:49.It's a long way since his early days on the production line in
:13:49. > :13:57.Sunderland. Trevor was in the first wave of key workers sent here in
:13:57. > :14:00.the early 80s to learn the Nissan way of building cars. Whatever
:14:00. > :14:09.preparation we could have done, at Sunderland at that time, could
:14:09. > :14:12.never have been enough for what we experienced coming into Japan. If
:14:12. > :14:16.you haven't been associated with an industry like this, or the car
:14:16. > :14:26.industry, you could never imagine what it was like. It was a huge
:14:26. > :14:27.
:14:27. > :14:37.plant, a huge operation, very busy Since the 80s, thousands of staff
:14:37. > :14:40.have been sent from Sunderland to Japan. Since last year, the first
:14:40. > :14:43.trip, I've been over nearly three times, I think. To try to
:14:43. > :14:48.understand exactly how they do their work, and see what processes
:14:48. > :14:52.I can put back into the UK process. And we need to rebuild, now,
:14:52. > :14:58.roughly? Today, Les Green is trying to solve a specific problem with
:14:58. > :15:01.the Leaf. The area I've been looking at is the glove box, and
:15:01. > :15:04.the switch panels on the dashboard and see how we connect them, see
:15:04. > :15:07.how we use the same sequences, and whether there are any difficulties
:15:07. > :15:11.in that area. They've seen the problems, they fed them back to us,
:15:11. > :15:13.this is an opportunity to see those problems in real life and see what
:15:13. > :15:16.improvements they've made, so I'm benchmarking against what the
:15:16. > :15:26.Japanese have done on the Leaf. You can tell, now, it's starting to go.
:15:26. > :15:29.
:15:29. > :15:38.It's not all about building cars. The weekend is a time to get away
:15:38. > :15:40.from the factory and do some teambuilding. It's to get away from
:15:40. > :15:50.the normal, mundane game of, yes, you're in Japan, normally, where
:15:50. > :15:54.ever you go, there's people in a high-rise area. Four it was an
:15:54. > :16:04.opportunity for their new lives to see a bit of the country well and
:16:04. > :16:15.
:16:15. > :16:20.just being in Tokyo, to take them The output from the Sunderland lads
:16:20. > :16:28.has not always won universal approval. The first model produced
:16:28. > :16:32.was the Nissan Bluebird. It had all the charisma of an old shoe. By the
:16:32. > :16:39.time the Nissan Primera and the Micra arrived, we saw this for what
:16:39. > :16:43.it was, one of the best car plants in the world. No longer just
:16:43. > :16:50.assembling imported parts, the sun ploughed millions into the factory
:16:50. > :16:55.to make cars from scratch. I knew that they were doing it seriously,
:16:55. > :17:01.then. The minute you put that plant in You're anchoring manufacturing
:17:01. > :17:08.in that location. By the end of the decade, the company had spent more
:17:08. > :17:17.than �1 billion in Sunderland, but it was looking overstressed. They
:17:17. > :17:20.were starting to lose quite a lot of money. And we were very worried.
:17:20. > :17:29.Nissan is heavily in debt, and even though the Sunderland plant is the
:17:29. > :17:34.most efficient factory in Europe it is Renault that now calls the shots.
:17:34. > :17:39.Renault made a significant cash injection into the company. Renault
:17:39. > :17:47.know how we to greater productivity, new models and more jobs. But
:17:47. > :17:52.then... It has been a day of turmoil on the money markets.
:17:52. > :17:57.credit crunch lead to an overnight slump in sales. The company was
:17:57. > :18:01.forced to do a U-turn on its job- for-life pledge, and one-fifth of
:18:01. > :18:09.the workforce was laid off. security is one of the biggest
:18:09. > :18:15.things. It was a massive shock. That was a very difficult time
:18:15. > :18:17.indeed, for the plant manager but for her everybody involved,
:18:17. > :18:23.particularly the employees and their families who are obviously
:18:23. > :18:27.felt threatened. The company rode out the recession thanks to the
:18:27. > :18:32.popularity of new models and a favourable exchange rate. 2,000
:18:32. > :18:37.more staff have been taken on. Nissan is now the linchpin of the
:18:37. > :18:42.local economy. For every one job at the Sunderland plant there are
:18:42. > :18:50.another four in the supply chain. In the north-east we have just over
:18:50. > :18:53.1100 people at a facility set up to supply the sand. Poor growth has
:18:53. > :18:58.none of their expansion plans. Without them we would not be you
:18:58. > :19:02.run the north-east. This is the final inspection the area for the
:19:02. > :19:09.instrument panel. We send a vehicle down every two hours. This time
:19:09. > :19:14.tomorrow these instrument panels will be in a finished state. Nissan
:19:14. > :19:19.insists suppliers take on his regimented way of working. There is
:19:19. > :19:23.one cockpit module delivered every minute. The company has cut staff
:19:23. > :19:28.embedded in the manufacturing. is the point rubber cockpit modules
:19:28. > :19:37.are delivered to Nissan, fitted by the manipulator of you can see
:19:37. > :19:42.behind me. 30,000 people and their families, all those people are
:19:42. > :19:50.taking money into the MetroCentres of this world, and the leisure
:19:50. > :19:54.centre, so without Nissan, there would be a big hole. Iowa just
:19:54. > :19:59.watch you and the time you to make sure that you're doing the job well.
:19:59. > :20:04.It is late summer, 2012. The latest batch of recruits, including former
:20:04. > :20:09.soldier, Percy, our man on the shop floor. Things have to be done at a
:20:10. > :20:14.certain time. It is very rare that the deadline is missed. A lot of
:20:14. > :20:19.organisations, if you are five minutes later it is not a big drama,
:20:19. > :20:24.but at Nissan, you have to be on time, so does the army, so there is
:20:24. > :20:28.that discipline within the sun, and you talk about the subtle
:20:28. > :20:34.differences between soldiers and civilians. Civilians say no, which
:20:34. > :20:37.is something I am not used to. new staff and work in very
:20:37. > :20:44.different conditions from the heat and noise of the rest of the
:20:44. > :20:49.factory, the ones to make the batteries. And the battery plant
:20:49. > :20:56.you do not realise the level of technology that is being developed
:20:56. > :21:00.to make this a commercial success. This process is wasp more or less
:21:00. > :21:10.100% automated, with very little manual intervention. High-speed
:21:10. > :21:20.
:21:20. > :21:24.Over the years, hundreds of Japanese families have been coming
:21:24. > :21:31.to the north east to work on the sun and their suppliers. And some
:21:31. > :21:41.have settled permanently. Today's event is the annual meeting of the
:21:41. > :21:41.
:21:41. > :21:51.North East Japanese Women's Association. And thank you for that.
:21:51. > :21:54.
:21:54. > :21:58.The event is organised by Sayoko Smith. In the north-east people do
:21:58. > :22:06.care about us and about people in general. It is a wonderful
:22:06. > :22:16.community. When I first came here which was 8.5 years ago, I could
:22:16. > :22:22.
:22:22. > :22:31.not understand a word. But she is now an expert. Any Mayuki works at
:22:31. > :22:37.Nissan. My job is to help people settle to get accommodation, to
:22:37. > :22:41.find a GP and open a bank account. The children, they do not have to
:22:41. > :22:47.worry about at all, because they adapt very quickly to the new
:22:47. > :22:54.culture. North-east people are just like us, very friendly, who want to
:22:54. > :23:04.get to know a lot about Japan and they are kind in reality, if you
:23:04. > :23:07.
:23:07. > :23:14.make friends once, this lasts for a October the 2012 and it is a red
:23:14. > :23:19.letter day at Nissan. Once a preparation and many million pounds
:23:19. > :23:23.spent, and today, the Nissan leaf is on the production line. These
:23:23. > :23:27.lads have only ever bought one model on the line, so this is
:23:27. > :23:34.something different for them. last nut and bolt is checked and
:23:34. > :23:44.double-checked. In has, the car is getting rave reviews. It is quite a
:23:44. > :23:50.
:23:50. > :23:59.nice car. But it is not without teething problems. What's
:23:59. > :24:07.happening? Can use lower down and get this out? -- can you slow it
:24:07. > :24:13.down? We have a trapped harness. You will need to get that. Put that
:24:13. > :24:20.down as a concern, so that it does not happen again. The big test is
:24:20. > :24:25.the battery. Get it married up to the car, and then once it is done
:24:25. > :24:35.will say that was OK, then it drops down, and the battery is secure. It
:24:35. > :24:36.
:24:36. > :24:42.has gone pretty well. We get it down from four an hour, to three an
:24:42. > :24:50.hour, and then it all depends on sales from then on. So far, Nissan
:24:51. > :24:55.has sold 55,000 worldwide, half of the 100,000 that it had hoped for.
:24:55. > :24:59.Not everybody is going to get this technology and jump into an
:24:59. > :25:09.electric vehicle but what we have demonstrated with the Nissan leaf
:25:09. > :25:43.
:25:43. > :25:48.Traditionally, Japan cast the die for Nissan's 14 million global
:25:48. > :25:51.workforce, training them at its mother plant, but now, Sunderland
:25:51. > :26:00.are shearing and that responsibility. Sunderland as the
:26:00. > :26:05.most reliable by Japanese people and then we ask Sunderland to take
:26:05. > :26:13.care all those European, African and Middle East and India area, as
:26:13. > :26:18.a global mother plant. The parent company places trust in the plant,
:26:18. > :26:27.in terms of breeding than the San DNA into overseas plants, so it is
:26:27. > :26:37.a further in the cap, a reward for many years of hard work. -- feather
:26:37. > :26:43.in the cap. St Petersburg, a far cry from Wearside, but Nissan's new
:26:43. > :26:48.factory is a carbon copy of the Sunderland plant. It was built by a
:26:48. > :26:52.team from the north-east. It was a throwback. The Japanese guys have
:26:52. > :26:58.been educating me. Who would have thought that a local guy would be
:26:58. > :27:01.sitting in Russia educating people on this and construction?
:27:01. > :27:08.English colleagues have a great help. The Russian people are very
:27:08. > :27:14.friendly, open and honest and culturally very similar to last.
:27:14. > :27:18.get constant support and assistance from the mother plant in Sunderland.
:27:18. > :27:22.There are those who say that you could take all the things you've
:27:22. > :27:26.got in Sunderland now and just dump it somewhere else, with much
:27:26. > :27:31.cheaper labour cost economy. I do not think you can do that because
:27:31. > :27:40.so much work has gone in and the quality is so high, that it would
:27:40. > :27:44.be difficult to replicate that in Russia, China or India. So the 8th
:27:44. > :27:49.new model rolls off the line in Sunderland. It is now up to Nissan
:27:49. > :27:52.customers to decide whether its electric dreams come true. The car
:27:53. > :27:58.has been produced behind me are the best possible rebuke to those who
:27:58. > :28:03.say that in Britain, we cannot design things any more, we cannot
:28:03. > :28:09.make things any more, we cannot export things any more. It is a
:28:09. > :28:15.great pity the British car industry isn't still British owned.
:28:15. > :28:19.course we are a Japanese company, but when a car leaves here, it is a
:28:19. > :28:25.British car. It does make you feel proud to put these for vehicles on