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Nissan - the jewel in the crown of the north-east economy. Once | :00:13. | :00:21. | |
clouded with suspicion, it's now Europe's most productive car plant. | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
We go behind the scenes as it gambles on becoming the first mass | :00:25. | :00:32. | |
producer of all-electric cars. Nissan are taking a huge risk with | :00:32. | :00:36. | |
the Leaf because they are the first to market, they've bet the farm on | :00:36. | :00:40. | |
it, and it's extremely brave. ask, are Nissan's electric dreams | :00:40. | :00:50. | |
:00:50. | :00:57. | ||
on full charge or do they risk OK, so help yourself to hi-viz | :00:57. | :01:05. | |
jackets here. A critical day for these people. It could be the start | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
of a job which will bring security and the chance to be part of an | :01:09. | :01:14. | |
extraordinary north-east industrial story. Every single vehicle you see | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
in this plant is a customer's order. There is not a single car that we | :01:17. | :01:24. | |
make that will stand in a compound and wait to be sold. For Percy, | :01:24. | :01:31. | |
it's a chance for a new career after leaving the Army. I was in | :01:31. | :01:34. | |
the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers so it's generally a | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
mechanical background that I've been in the past 24 years. Percy is | :01:38. | :01:43. | |
one of hundreds who want to work here. With one in 10 people out of | :01:43. | :01:46. | |
work on Wearside, Nissan can be choosy about who it hires, With at | :01:46. | :01:53. | |
least 10 applicants for every new It takes 59 seconds for the body to | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
go past. Not 58 seconds, or one minute, exactly 59 seconds. You | :01:56. | :02:04. | |
won't see them running and you won't see them standing still. How | :02:04. | :02:08. | |
long do you think it takes us to put that dash in? Someone want to | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
give me a guess? 20 seconds? 30? 30 to 50 seconds, yes? Settle down and | :02:12. | :02:15. | |
have a look. Here we go, as you pass it through the right side | :02:15. | :02:20. | |
front door, I'll start counting, ready? One, two. Two seconds. So | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
two seconds is all that it takes to get this dashboard in there. It's | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
pretty efficient. I was pretty surprised. It shook me a little bit, | :02:28. | :02:30. | |
to see just how quickly these things come together. 3.5 hours to | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
produce a car. You've got the timescale, you got a job to do, you | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
know exactly what your job is, and you've just got to get on and do it. | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
It was like going into a different world, really, it was like going | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
into Santa's workshop. All these people working at such a high level | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
for such a long period of time is just inconceivable, really. You see | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
this white stuff they're putting on the car there? That's to stop bird | :02:54. | :02:59. | |
strike - that's the posh word for it! This year, Nissan broke all | :02:59. | :03:01. | |
production records at its Sunderland plant, when the 7 | :03:01. | :03:07. | |
millionth car rolled off the line. And that, gentlemen, is all there | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
is to making a Nissan. The time from when you first come into this | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
shop to going out the door and putting more than 4,500 parts in | :03:15. | :03:22. | |
the car, 3.5 hours. And that, gentlemen, is all there is to it. | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
Well, that's regular cars, but what about making - and selling - the | :03:26. | :03:31. | |
new electric model? From a marketing point of view, it's an | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
absolute nightmare. How do you sell a car like that into a market that | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
is absolutely rigid with misinformation and preconceptions? | :03:40. | :03:50. | |
Nissan makes one car every four minutes. More than 80 % go to | :03:50. | :04:00. | |
:04:00. | :04:01. | ||
It's a success story born out of industrial misery on Wearside 30 | :04:01. | :04:11. | |
:04:11. | :04:13. | ||
We were close to the end of the decline in traditional industries | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
and people were wondering how the city would make its living in | :04:16. | :04:26. | |
:04:26. | :04:26. | ||
future. And where would we get the jobs from? There was lots of angst. | :04:26. | :04:28. | |
Unemployment in Sunderland specifically was growing rather | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
alarmingly and in some ward areas, probably well in excess of 20 % | :04:31. | :04:41. | |
John Bridge was working for the Northern Development Company when | :04:41. | :04:47. | |
he heard a whisper that Nissan was looking to set up shop in Britain. | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
I then go to Tokyo in early March 1981, and as it turned out, the | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
first region in the whole of the UK that was able to make a substantial | :04:54. | :05:03. | |
presentation to what was then known as the Nissan product team. There | :05:04. | :05:09. | |
were fewer pickets outside Austin Rover were Cowley plant today... | :05:09. | :05:11. | |
But Britain's poor record of industrial relations, particularly | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
in carmaking, was putting off foreign investors. There were | :05:16. | :05:26. | |
appalling things going on in the industry as a whole. It did come as | :05:26. | :05:31. | |
a bit of a surprise to me that they were as open to doing a deal. | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
Foreign car-makers in Britain had been talking more about reducing | :05:34. | :05:44. | |
:05:44. | :05:47. | ||
their operations or even leaving completely. They had major concerns | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
about the state of the car industry in the UK at the time and they | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
didn't want to if you like, to inherit those sort of | :05:54. | :05:56. | |
characteristics, so a clean, green field, fresh start type of | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
environment was what they were really looking for. Nissan's final | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
choice will be from three sites - Sunderland, Humberside and Shotton. | :06:02. | :06:09. | |
So against the odds, Nissan signed the deal to build cars in Britain. | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
But where was still up for debate. The Japanese have told government | :06:12. | :06:15. | |
officials that they will make a decision by the end of this month. | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
It was a battle to land the big prize. So, why did Nissan choose a | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
disused airfield on Wearside? Thatcher government said, OK, you | :06:22. | :06:31. | |
can have this land, for agricultural prices. There was a | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
lot of anecdotal stuff, things do the rounds like the blokes in | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
Sunderland like a drink after work, but the blokes in the north-west | :06:37. | :06:43. | |
like a drink during work. So, the Japanese must have been kind of | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
dazzled at all of this contradictory information and to | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
have made the decision they did was really, really difficult, but the | :06:49. | :06:54. | |
government helped an awful lot. They may well have got some nods | :06:55. | :06:57. | |
and winks from the construction industry which spreads obviously | :06:57. | :06:59. | |
over the whole kingdom about where industrial relations and worker | :06:59. | :07:02. | |
discipline was better than some other places. And I think that the | :07:02. | :07:10. | |
north-east came out pretty well in Every connection was milked to | :07:10. | :07:19. | |
curry favour. One of the stories that we heard was that there was a | :07:19. | :07:21. | |
very famous battleship in the Japanese Navy, that was part of | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
some big naval battle it had had with the Russian Empire. And they | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
defeated the Russian Navy where they were expected to get trounced. | :07:29. | :07:35. | |
And this big battleship was made in But, history can be a double-edged | :07:35. | :07:42. | |
sword. The memories of what had happened to, particularly our | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
prisoners of war in Japan, were still very real, they were very | :07:45. | :07:54. | |
recent. These wounds were still raw. There was an element of saying that | :07:54. | :07:56. | |
you couldn't trust the Japanese, that we should maintain a hostile | :07:56. | :08:06. | |
:08:06. | :08:07. | ||
attitude towards them. To think that we had all that trouble with | :08:07. | :08:11. | |
the Japanese, and they'd been so cruel to us, and there, we were | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
going to help them to set up a factory, well, it just didn't seem | :08:14. | :08:21. | |
right to any of our prisoners of war. Len Gibson spent all of his | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
Second World War in a Japanese prison camp. Many of his old | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
comrades protested against Nissan. They had little placards made | :08:29. | :08:33. | |
around their chests. They daubed paint on some of the walls, they | :08:33. | :08:42. | |
found one of the councillors and bombarded him with questions. And | :08:42. | :08:47. | |
gave him a hard time. Despite the opposition, Nissan chose the north- | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
east. The Japanese car-makers, Nissan, finally announced where | :08:51. | :08:56. | |
they are building their British plant. It is to be at Washington | :08:56. | :09:06. | |
:09:06. | :09:09. | ||
TRANSLATION: I feel that this is a most important occasion. The start | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
of a new relationship with the people of Sunderland and the north- | :09:12. | :09:19. | |
Three decades on, Nissan is ploughing millions into another | :09:19. | :09:25. | |
massive leap into the unknown. It's June 2012, and they're working | :09:25. | :09:31. | |
around the clock to make the changes needed to build the Leaf. | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
We try to make it as simple as possible. You will not put new men | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
into a line to build the Leaf vehicle. You will use the people | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
that build the Nissan Qashqai, to also build the Leaf. Here, staff | :09:45. | :09:52. | |
are being trained on how to fit the battery. We don't know what to | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
expect. We don't know if it's going to sell well, or if it's not, but | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
it is exciting in that way. If it does sell well, we are the first | :10:00. | :10:03. | |
ones to kick it off, so everyone always thinks that Nissan were the | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
first ones to go forward. The Leaf, make no mistake about it, is | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
compromised because it's only got a 100 mile range and it costs too | :10:11. | :10:13. | |
much money although they have recently reduced the price, and it | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
really takes too long to charge, but that's a malaise that affects | :10:16. | :10:20. | |
all electric cars. Nissan believes everyone should be able to drive | :10:20. | :10:27. | |
the future, today. In terms of the way it drives, and the way it looks | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
in its interior, it's really very good indeed. It's the market leader. | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
So it gets good reviews, but it costs more than �20,000. And that's | :10:36. | :10:43. | |
not all. When you're making a petrol car, I don't have to think | :10:43. | :10:45. | |
about where the nearest petrol station is. With electric vehicles, | :10:45. | :10:55. | |
:10:55. | :10:56. | ||
it is important to know where the nearest charging stations are. | :10:56. | :10:58. | |
Nissan is working with the British government on plug-in places to | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
develop a charging infrastructure in the UK. Imagine a car factory | :11:01. | :11:05. | |
where no-one ever goes on strike. And where no-one is made redundant | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
either. Back in the 80s, it was industrial relations that needed a | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
fresh approach. The managing director gets just the same as men | :11:13. | :11:21. | |
on the line. My advice to them, all the way through, was to deal with | :11:21. | :11:24. | |
their workforce inside the factory, in working hours, and not to allow | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
meetings to take place in the car park or someone like that, outside | :11:27. | :11:37. | |
:11:37. | :11:39. | ||
working hours, because then they could be infiltrated by outsiders. | :11:39. | :11:44. | |
And they understood quite clearly those messages. Or is this just a | :11:44. | :11:53. | |
People were thinking, well, will we have any union deal? Yes, there was | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
a lot of trepidation. There was a lot of people wondering how this | :11:57. | :12:07. | |
:12:07. | :12:08. | ||
would work out. Nissan insisted on having a one-union deal. I was | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
lucky, really, because the union, I was in, it was the union that was | :12:12. | :12:15. | |
in when Nissan came over, there was a lot of turmoil in the car | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
industry with the unions, and I guess that one of the things Nissan | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
looked at was to sort of get an agreement with the one union and, | :12:22. | :12:25. | |
that way, they could maybe get through difficulties, but it was a | :12:25. | :12:32. | |
lot easier. At the operation in Washington, the royal couple | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
painted in the eye of a traditional doll. So, the deal, sweetened by | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
multi-million pound government subsidies, stayed on track. The | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
plant finally opened in 1986, with ambition that appeared sky-high. | :12:46. | :12:48. | |
believe the employees are determined to demonstrate that | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
Nissan United Kingdom can, at the least, draw level with and then | :12:51. | :13:01. | |
:13:01. | :13:25. | ||
overtake the success and quality APPLAUSE. We were one of the first | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
lines that she came to. At that time I was a team leader on the | :13:29. | :13:31. | |
chassis section. This was responsible for basically, the | :13:31. | :13:34. | |
underfloor of the vehicle. I was very young, 24 years old, probably | :13:34. | :13:37. | |
couldn't remember what she said to me at the time, but it was a great | :13:37. | :13:41. | |
day. Trevor Mann is now on Nissan's executive board based here in Japan. | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
It's a long way since his early days on the production line in | :13:44. | :13:49. | |
Sunderland. Trevor was in the first wave of key workers sent here in | :13:49. | :13:57. | |
the early 80s to learn the Nissan way of building cars. Whatever | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
preparation we could have done, at Sunderland at that time, could | :14:00. | :14:09. | |
never have been enough for what we experienced coming into Japan. If | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
you haven't been associated with an industry like this, or the car | :14:12. | :14:16. | |
industry, you could never imagine what it was like. It was a huge | :14:16. | :14:26. | |
:14:26. | :14:27. | ||
plant, a huge operation, very busy Since the 80s, thousands of staff | :14:27. | :14:37. | |
have been sent from Sunderland to Japan. Since last year, the first | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
trip, I've been over nearly three times, I think. To try to | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
understand exactly how they do their work, and see what processes | :14:43. | :14:48. | |
I can put back into the UK process. And we need to rebuild, now, | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
roughly? Today, Les Green is trying to solve a specific problem with | :14:52. | :14:58. | |
the Leaf. The area I've been looking at is the glove box, and | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
the switch panels on the dashboard and see how we connect them, see | :15:01. | :15:04. | |
how we use the same sequences, and whether there are any difficulties | :15:04. | :15:07. | |
in that area. They've seen the problems, they fed them back to us, | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
this is an opportunity to see those problems in real life and see what | :15:11. | :15:13. | |
improvements they've made, so I'm benchmarking against what the | :15:13. | :15:16. | |
Japanese have done on the Leaf. You can tell, now, it's starting to go. | :15:16. | :15:26. | |
:15:26. | :15:29. | ||
It's not all about building cars. The weekend is a time to get away | :15:29. | :15:38. | |
from the factory and do some teambuilding. It's to get away from | :15:38. | :15:40. | |
the normal, mundane game of, yes, you're in Japan, normally, where | :15:40. | :15:50. | |
ever you go, there's people in a high-rise area. Four it was an | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
opportunity for their new lives to see a bit of the country well and | :15:54. | :16:04. | |
:16:04. | :16:15. | ||
just being in Tokyo, to take them The output from the Sunderland lads | :16:15. | :16:20. | |
has not always won universal approval. The first model produced | :16:20. | :16:28. | |
was the Nissan Bluebird. It had all the charisma of an old shoe. By the | :16:28. | :16:32. | |
time the Nissan Primera and the Micra arrived, we saw this for what | :16:32. | :16:39. | |
it was, one of the best car plants in the world. No longer just | :16:39. | :16:43. | |
assembling imported parts, the sun ploughed millions into the factory | :16:43. | :16:50. | |
to make cars from scratch. I knew that they were doing it seriously, | :16:50. | :16:55. | |
then. The minute you put that plant in You're anchoring manufacturing | :16:55. | :17:01. | |
in that location. By the end of the decade, the company had spent more | :17:01. | :17:08. | |
than �1 billion in Sunderland, but it was looking overstressed. They | :17:08. | :17:17. | |
were starting to lose quite a lot of money. And we were very worried. | :17:17. | :17:20. | |
Nissan is heavily in debt, and even though the Sunderland plant is the | :17:20. | :17:29. | |
most efficient factory in Europe it is Renault that now calls the shots. | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
Renault made a significant cash injection into the company. Renault | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
know how we to greater productivity, new models and more jobs. But | :17:39. | :17:47. | |
then... It has been a day of turmoil on the money markets. | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
credit crunch lead to an overnight slump in sales. The company was | :17:52. | :17:57. | |
forced to do a U-turn on its job- for-life pledge, and one-fifth of | :17:57. | :18:01. | |
the workforce was laid off. security is one of the biggest | :18:01. | :18:09. | |
things. It was a massive shock. That was a very difficult time | :18:09. | :18:15. | |
indeed, for the plant manager but for her everybody involved, | :18:15. | :18:17. | |
particularly the employees and their families who are obviously | :18:17. | :18:23. | |
felt threatened. The company rode out the recession thanks to the | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
popularity of new models and a favourable exchange rate. 2,000 | :18:27. | :18:32. | |
more staff have been taken on. Nissan is now the linchpin of the | :18:32. | :18:37. | |
local economy. For every one job at the Sunderland plant there are | :18:37. | :18:42. | |
another four in the supply chain. In the north-east we have just over | :18:42. | :18:50. | |
1100 people at a facility set up to supply the sand. Poor growth has | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
none of their expansion plans. Without them we would not be you | :18:53. | :18:58. | |
run the north-east. This is the final inspection the area for the | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
instrument panel. We send a vehicle down every two hours. This time | :19:02. | :19:09. | |
tomorrow these instrument panels will be in a finished state. Nissan | :19:09. | :19:14. | |
insists suppliers take on his regimented way of working. There is | :19:14. | :19:19. | |
one cockpit module delivered every minute. The company has cut staff | :19:19. | :19:23. | |
embedded in the manufacturing. is the point rubber cockpit modules | :19:23. | :19:28. | |
are delivered to Nissan, fitted by the manipulator of you can see | :19:28. | :19:37. | |
behind me. 30,000 people and their families, all those people are | :19:37. | :19:42. | |
taking money into the MetroCentres of this world, and the leisure | :19:42. | :19:50. | |
centre, so without Nissan, there would be a big hole. Iowa just | :19:50. | :19:54. | |
watch you and the time you to make sure that you're doing the job well. | :19:54. | :19:59. | |
It is late summer, 2012. The latest batch of recruits, including former | :19:59. | :20:04. | |
soldier, Percy, our man on the shop floor. Things have to be done at a | :20:04. | :20:09. | |
certain time. It is very rare that the deadline is missed. A lot of | :20:10. | :20:14. | |
organisations, if you are five minutes later it is not a big drama, | :20:14. | :20:19. | |
but at Nissan, you have to be on time, so does the army, so there is | :20:19. | :20:24. | |
that discipline within the sun, and you talk about the subtle | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
differences between soldiers and civilians. Civilians say no, which | :20:28. | :20:34. | |
is something I am not used to. new staff and work in very | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
different conditions from the heat and noise of the rest of the | :20:37. | :20:44. | |
factory, the ones to make the batteries. And the battery plant | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
you do not realise the level of technology that is being developed | :20:49. | :20:56. | |
to make this a commercial success. This process is wasp more or less | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
100% automated, with very little manual intervention. High-speed | :21:00. | :21:10. | |
:21:10. | :21:20. | ||
Over the years, hundreds of Japanese families have been coming | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
to the north east to work on the sun and their suppliers. And some | :21:24. | :21:31. | |
have settled permanently. Today's event is the annual meeting of the | :21:31. | :21:41. | |
:21:41. | :21:41. | ||
North East Japanese Women's Association. And thank you for that. | :21:41. | :21:51. | |
:21:51. | :21:54. | ||
The event is organised by Sayoko Smith. In the north-east people do | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
care about us and about people in general. It is a wonderful | :21:58. | :22:06. | |
community. When I first came here which was 8.5 years ago, I could | :22:06. | :22:16. | |
:22:16. | :22:22. | ||
not understand a word. But she is now an expert. Any Mayuki works at | :22:22. | :22:31. | |
Nissan. My job is to help people settle to get accommodation, to | :22:31. | :22:37. | |
find a GP and open a bank account. The children, they do not have to | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
worry about at all, because they adapt very quickly to the new | :22:41. | :22:47. | |
culture. North-east people are just like us, very friendly, who want to | :22:47. | :22:54. | |
get to know a lot about Japan and they are kind in reality, if you | :22:54. | :23:04. | |
:23:04. | :23:07. | ||
make friends once, this lasts for a October the 2012 and it is a red | :23:07. | :23:14. | |
letter day at Nissan. Once a preparation and many million pounds | :23:14. | :23:19. | |
spent, and today, the Nissan leaf is on the production line. These | :23:19. | :23:23. | |
lads have only ever bought one model on the line, so this is | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
something different for them. last nut and bolt is checked and | :23:27. | :23:34. | |
double-checked. In has, the car is getting rave reviews. It is quite a | :23:34. | :23:44. | |
:23:44. | :23:50. | ||
nice car. But it is not without teething problems. What's | :23:50. | :23:59. | |
happening? Can use lower down and get this out? -- can you slow it | :23:59. | :24:07. | |
down? We have a trapped harness. You will need to get that. Put that | :24:07. | :24:13. | |
down as a concern, so that it does not happen again. The big test is | :24:13. | :24:20. | |
the battery. Get it married up to the car, and then once it is done | :24:20. | :24:25. | |
will say that was OK, then it drops down, and the battery is secure. It | :24:25. | :24:35. | |
:24:35. | :24:36. | ||
has gone pretty well. We get it down from four an hour, to three an | :24:36. | :24:42. | |
hour, and then it all depends on sales from then on. So far, Nissan | :24:42. | :24:50. | |
has sold 55,000 worldwide, half of the 100,000 that it had hoped for. | :24:51. | :24:55. | |
Not everybody is going to get this technology and jump into an | :24:55. | :24:59. | |
electric vehicle but what we have demonstrated with the Nissan leaf | :24:59. | :25:09. | |
:25:09. | :25:43. | ||
Traditionally, Japan cast the die for Nissan's 14 million global | :25:43. | :25:48. | |
workforce, training them at its mother plant, but now, Sunderland | :25:48. | :25:51. | |
are shearing and that responsibility. Sunderland as the | :25:51. | :26:00. | |
most reliable by Japanese people and then we ask Sunderland to take | :26:00. | :26:05. | |
care all those European, African and Middle East and India area, as | :26:05. | :26:13. | |
a global mother plant. The parent company places trust in the plant, | :26:13. | :26:18. | |
in terms of breeding than the San DNA into overseas plants, so it is | :26:18. | :26:27. | |
a further in the cap, a reward for many years of hard work. -- feather | :26:27. | :26:37. | |
in the cap. St Petersburg, a far cry from Wearside, but Nissan's new | :26:37. | :26:43. | |
factory is a carbon copy of the Sunderland plant. It was built by a | :26:43. | :26:48. | |
team from the north-east. It was a throwback. The Japanese guys have | :26:48. | :26:52. | |
been educating me. Who would have thought that a local guy would be | :26:52. | :26:58. | |
sitting in Russia educating people on this and construction? | :26:58. | :27:01. | |
English colleagues have a great help. The Russian people are very | :27:01. | :27:08. | |
friendly, open and honest and culturally very similar to last. | :27:08. | :27:14. | |
get constant support and assistance from the mother plant in Sunderland. | :27:14. | :27:18. | |
There are those who say that you could take all the things you've | :27:18. | :27:22. | |
got in Sunderland now and just dump it somewhere else, with much | :27:22. | :27:26. | |
cheaper labour cost economy. I do not think you can do that because | :27:26. | :27:31. | |
so much work has gone in and the quality is so high, that it would | :27:31. | :27:40. | |
be difficult to replicate that in Russia, China or India. So the 8th | :27:40. | :27:44. | |
new model rolls off the line in Sunderland. It is now up to Nissan | :27:44. | :27:49. | |
customers to decide whether its electric dreams come true. The car | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
has been produced behind me are the best possible rebuke to those who | :27:53. | :27:58. | |
say that in Britain, we cannot design things any more, we cannot | :27:58. | :28:03. | |
make things any more, we cannot export things any more. It is a | :28:03. | :28:09. | |
great pity the British car industry isn't still British owned. | :28:09. | :28:15. | |
course we are a Japanese company, but when a car leaves here, it is a | :28:15. | :28:19. | |
British car. It does make you feel proud to put these for vehicles on | :28:19. | :28:25. |