Crossing the Blues

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Nissan Qashqai 100,000 milestone

Nissan’s compact crossover has proven a hit in Europe as the 100,000th customer sale was finished during the last week of November. The Qashqai was launched in the European market in March and according to Nissan’s stats, the UK, Russia and Italy were its three largest markets, with sales at the end of November of 17,554, 15,376 and 10,746 units respectively since launch.

In order to meet demand for the car in Europe, Nissan increased production by 20% in June at its factory in Sunderland, England and from January, production of the Japanese version of the Qashqai (Dualis) will be transferred from Sunderland to Nissan’s factory in Kyushu, Japan, thus allowing extra production capacity for Europe. Sales of Dualis in Japan as it is badged in that market, have also exceeded expectation with total sales of over 18,000 since its introduction in May.

Nissan Qashqai facts & figures:

On average, 850 QASHQAIs are built a day at Sunderland
Each QASHQAI receives 4608 spot-welds in construction, administered by 298 robots
920 different combinations of QASHQAI have been manufactured
It takes 10.5 man hours to build a QASHQAI (including bumper mouldings and painting, and axle production)
A QASHQAI contains approximately 2750 components (depending on specification)