Nissan Qashqai: The millionth Qashqai leaves Sunderland

Nissan Qashqai - One Million produced at Sunderland

It seemed somehow a bit of an oddity, the Nissan Qashqai, when Nissan first rolled it out. What was it? A small SUV? A tall hatch? Something else altogether?

What the Qashqai was is now clear. It was the first Crossover, a niche that now has grown so big that Nissan don’t even bother building anything else in its sector.

And not just in the Focus and Golf sector has the Qashqai had a big impact, it’s managed to spawn a smaller version in the Nissan Juke which threatens to do in that sector what the Qashqai has done in its.

And through all this the Qashqai has been built at Nissan’s plant in Sunderland. Built for a total of four years, six months and 23 days for a grand total so far of a rather huge one million Qashqais.

Nissan – quite rightly – are chuffed with the achievement and proud to proclaim that the Qashqai is “…easily the highest-volume car produced in the UK.”

To celebrate, Nissan are sticking the millionth Qashqai – a silver 2.0-litre diesel TEKNA – on display at the O2 Arena in London and are planning on giving it away. They just don’t seem to have worked out how they’re going to do it yet.

The millionth Qashqai isn’t the end of the Qashqai story in Sunderland, just close to the end of the beginning.

As we reported recently, Sunderland is to build the new Nissan Qashqai with an investment from Nissan in the project of almost £200 million. Sunderland will also be building the LEAF before long and there’s plans for a battery plant too.

A proper UK success story. For Nissan and the Qashqai.

(10 photos – click any thumbnail for full size gallery)

By Cars UK