Nissan Qashqai is one of the most popular models in its segment, following the success of the previous generation. The crossover is already celebrating an important milestone, as the Sunderland factory produced the 500.000 unit of the current Qashqai. Achieving the feat in a record-breaking 21 months, Nissan’s crossover has become the fastest ever UK-built vehicle to smash the half million production mark.
Since its start of production in January 2014, a new Qashqai has been built every 62 seconds on the Sunderland factory’s Line 1, with nearly 100,000 (20%) of these being delivered within the UK.
Qashqai beat previous records set by the MK1 Ford Cortina, which took 34 months to hit the half million landmark, and the Austin/Morris 1100/1300 which reached the same total in 29 months.
Currently, the Qashqai is the best-selling crossover in Europe with France (68,044), Italy (45,464) and Spain (42,306) accounting for almost a third (31%) of global Qashqai sales.
Total global production of the Qashqai now tops 2.5 million. From late autumn 2015 the new Qashqai will also be manufactured in St. Petersburg for domestic sales in Russia.