Nissan Motor on Thursday said it would expand production of its popular Qashqai/Dualis mid-size crossover to its Kyushu plant in Japan to meet high local demand and free up more capacity at its Sunderland plant in the UK for European sales.

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Production of the Dualis (the Japan market name) is expected to begin in early 2008 at an eventual rate of 24,000 units a year.


A Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK spokesman said the Sunderland built plant was ramping up to 185,000 Qashqai units a year and added that Kyushu production would be solely for the Japanese market.


Sunderland-built models are sold all over Europe and are also shipped as far as Australia where the Dualis name is also used.


Nissan said global sales of the Qashqai/Dualis have outperformed initial projections since its European debut in February and launch in Japan in May. To-date, sales of Dualis in Japan have reached 9,466 units while sales in Europe of Qashqai are at 58,051 units.

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Nissan said that adding capacity in Kyushu would allow Sunderland plant to better meet European demand. In June, the automaker announced a further GBP2.4million (JPY580m) investment in the Sunderland plant to increase Qashqai production.


“Together with the additional global volume in Japan, this investment will help reduce the waiting time for a new Qashqai across Europe,” Nissan said.


Japan’s Nikkei business newspaper last month reported that Sunderland had been working overtime and weekends to meet demand and was struggling to fill bigger-than-expected orders for the Dualis in Japan while Nissan’s domestic factories had been under-utilised due to slack demand in Japan.


The model – a family-sized cross between a five-door hatchback and a small SUV offered with a wide variety of petrol and diesel engines and trim options – has replaced the Almera and Primera car lines and the five-seat Tino MPV (minivan) here in Europe.


Graeme Roberts