The increasing demand for Nissan’s 100%-electric Leaf and the continuing popularity of the Qashqai saw the company’s Sunderland plant produce more than 500,000 vehicles for the third year running. The production figures for 2014 show that 500,237 cars were built at the UK plant, which currently employs 6,700 people.

Kevin Fitzpatrick, Nissan’s vice-president for manufacturing in the UK, said: “Successfully launching the new Qashqai was key to surpassing our record-breaking volumes of the previous two years. Increasing demand for the 100%-electric Leaf — the world’s best-selling electric vehicle — has also played a significant part. We are now looking ahead to another exciting year for the company and the historic launch of Infiniti production in Sunderland.”

The second half of 2015 will see production of the Infiniti Q30 begin. It will be the first new car brand to be manufactured in the UK on such a large scale in 23 years.