British-built Nissan Qashqai is UK’s best-selling car of 2022

The Nissan Qashqai has been named UK’s favourite car of 2022, and the first British-built model to top the annual sales charts for 24 years.

Figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) confirm that the home-grown Qashqai – which was designed in Paddington, engineered in Cranfield and is built in Sunderland – was the nation’s best-selling car of the last 12 months.

A total of 42,704 new Qashqais were driven off dealership forecourts across the UK in 2022 and the figure for December alone stood at 3,506, reported the SMMT.

To celebrate the achievement, an exclusive gold-wrapped Qashqai was created in honour of the 7,000 Nissan employees from around the UK that have contributed to its success.

Three generations of Qashqai have been on sale in the UK since it was first launched in 2007, all of which have regularly appeared among individual month’s best-seller lists, however this is the first time it’s been the year’s best-selling car overall, and the first time a Nissan has topped the annual sales charts.

Alan Johnson, vice president of manufacturing for Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK), added: “We’ve built three generations of the ground-breaking Qashqai in the north-east and it has become the mainstay of production here for 16 years.

“We’re incredibly proud of its success and it’s great to see that our passion for building it is shared by car buyers across the UK and Europe, who love its combination of practicality, exciting design, unique technology and electrified efficiency.”

Built at Nissan’s Sunderland plant, Qashqai is at the heart of a manufacturing operation that is fast becoming a blueprint for future UK automotive production. 

Nissan’s recently announced EV36Zero plan combines electric vehicles, renewable energy and battery production and will create a sustainable EV manufacturing hub in the north-east of England, supporting thousands of jobs at the plant and its supply chain, and supporting Nissan’s journey to carbon neutrality by 2050.

A recruitment drive is currently underway at Nissan, seeking manufacturing staff to join its team.

Nissan
www.nissan.co.uk