Infiniti, the luxury vehicle brand of the Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor, is planning to start production at Nissan’s UK vehicle manufacturing plant in Sunderland from 2015.
The Japanese carmaker will invest about £250m in the facility, which is aimed at creating 1,000 jobs at Sunderland and across the country.
Nissan Motor executive vice president and chief performance officer Colin Dodge said that the move represents the beginning of the firm's first premium product manufacturing at Sunderland.
"We are going to build an Infiniti compact premium car in the UK for the first time," Dodge said.
According to the carmaker, the plant, which has the capacity of manufacturing 60,000 Infiniti models per year, will initially manufacture a new compact premium model inspired by Infiniti's Etherea concept car.
Nissan's London design center and its European Technical Center at Cranfield are involved in developing the new model, which will be exported globally.
