Nissan and Chinese carmaker Chery have announced that they are to start discussions around building Chery models using spare production lines at Nissan’s Sunderland plant in the northeast of England. 

The deal that has been signed is just to look into the possibility of building the cars in the UK, but so far the two manufacturers have established that Sunderland will remain owned by Nissan and under Nissan control, with any workers building the Cherys still employed by Nissan. 

The aim would be to start building cars on Sunderland’s Line One facility at some point after April 2027 during the 27/28 financial year. 

Last month Nissan revealed that it had consolidated its production at the site near Newcastle on its Line Two setup with a view to contracting out the spare capacity. The Japanese carmaker’s Juke, Leaf and Qashqai models are currently built at the Sunderland factory. 

Nissan’s regional boss has welcomed the agreement as an “important step forward”, and the company has said it has no further details to add to what it’s said so far. 

The news comes as MG has announced plans to build a new factory in the northwest tip of Spain in Galicia, bring production of its cars back to Europe for the first time in over a decade. 

It’s not known yet what models MG plans to build at its new factory, but it says that it’s investing £173m to build the new factory that will have a capacity of 120,000 cars a year.

Spain must be doing something right though – fellow Chinese carmaker Leapmotor is set to produce its cars at two Stellantis factories in the country starting from the end of 2026. The locations in Zaragoza and Madrid will build B10 SUVs and a variety of models for the European markets. 

For companies like Chery, MG and Leapmotor these moves to relocate production to Europe will be key to avoiding tariffs on Chinese built products and also to qualify for regional incentives like the UK’s electric car grant and zero emission vehicle mandates that incentivise locally built cars. 

The Lotus Eletre X interior is very similar to the one in the EV version, but you can sit in it for much longer