Nissan’s Sunderland plant in north-east England has started production of the stretched, seven-seat Qashqai+2 crossover anounced earlier this year.
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It follows the smash success of the widely-exported five-seater, production of which has several times been boosted in the UK and has now been extended to Japanese and Chinese markets to meet regional demand. Sunderland-built units go as far as Australia.
European sales of the original Qashqai have now topped 235,000 since launch in March 2007.
The new model brings to five the total number of vehicle launches at the plant in as many years.
Earlier this year, Nissan president and CEO Carlos Ghosn, confirmed Sunderland would build a new compact crossover car from 2010.
The Qashqai+2 was designed and engineered here in Europe to suit customers in the region.
It offers more space and a more flexible seven-seat configuration, compared with the five-seat model.
Last June, Nissan created 850 new jobs on a third production shift at Sunderland to help meet demand for the five-seat Qashqai, as well as expected demand for the new version.
The pair cost the automaker GBP223m for design, research & development, vendor tooling and plant preparation.
Trevor Mann, Nissan’s senior vice president for manufacturing, Europe, said: “Qashqai has experienced unprecedented success in Europe and we are now looking forward to building on this with the launch of Qashqai+2.
“In total, we expect our production target for both versions of Qashqai to be around 270,000 cars in the 2008 financial year, but of course this depends on the market. This level of volume will contribute to another record production year at our Sunderland plant with an estimated 450,000 vehicles coming off the line.
UK deliveries of the Qashqai+2 begin on 18 September at prices ranging from GBP17,199 for the two-wheel drive, two-litre petrol base-specification Visia to GBP23,799 for the top-spec four-wheel drive Tekna two-litre turbodiesel.
Although few visible parts are interchangeable, the Qashqai shares its Nissan C-series platform with the Japanese-built five-seat Rogue crossover launched in the US in September last year. That model has a 2.5-litre I4 petrol engine.
Honey, I stretched the Qashqai
