Tacle Seating UK, a joint venture between Lear Corporation and Japanese seating supplier Tachi-S, has established a new facility in Sunderland, UK, to manufacture seats and sequence wire harnesses and smart junction boxes for Nissan’s new compact crossover vehicle for Europe.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The new model has been named by consumer publications as the P32L ‘Qashqai’, and is scheduled to go into production in December 2006, with sales starting in early 2007. It is based on the Renault-Nissan C-platform, the basis of Nissan’s Almera and alliance partner Renault’s Megane. ‘Spy’ photos show a vehicle about the size of a BMW X3.
Tacle Seating UK was formed in September 2005, with Lear holding a 51% stake and Tachi-S a 49% stake. The Sunderland facility is the Tacle joint venture’s first UK plant and its third location globally.
The 11,000-square-metre facility will be fully operational in November 2006, and will employ up to 200 people to support the launch of the Nissan vehicle, the first complete design project to have come from Nissan Design Europe which opened in London in January 2003.
Tacle recently held a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the $US25m facility dedicated to supplying seats to Nissan’s nearby assembly plant.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalData“A top priority for Lear is to further diversify our customer base by continuing to expand our business with Asian automakers,” said Lear’s Japanese customer division president Gideon Jewel.
In addition to the new business with Nissan in the UK, the Tacle joint venture has locations to supply seats to Nissan in North America through a new facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, currently under construction, as well as an additional facility in Guanzhou, China.
