Facing the most profound technological shift in a century, the titans of the auto industry are racing to secure battery supply close to the factories where they will make the new cleaner electric vehicles of the future.
Nissan cast its backing for the 9 gigawatt-hour (GWh) plant as illustrative of a rejuvenation of Britain's automotive industry, which has for five years grappled with the fear that Brexit could cut off the rest of the European market.
"This project is the demonstration of the renaissance of the British car industry," Ashwani Gupta, Nissan's chief operating officer, told reporters at the Sunderland plant, which exports 70% of its vehicles to the European Union.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Nissan's move was "a major vote of confidence in the UK and our highly skilled workers in the North East". Nissan said Britain had backed the plan, but did not detail any guarantees or incentives.
The 1 billion-pound ($1.4 billion) investment by Nissan, its Chinese partner Envision AESC and local government in northeast England will create 6,200 jobs at the Sunderland plant and in British supply chains.
Nissan will spend up to 423 million pounds to produce a new-generation all-electric crossover vehicle at the plant, where it already produces the LEAF electric vehicle and the Qashqai crossover SUV. The new vehicle has yet to be named and there is no launch date.
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