IT is forty years since the Nissan Bluebird rolled off the production line at the car plant on Wearside and it is still flying the flag for the North East.
Many readers will recall, four decades ago the North East was losing the very industries which had defined it for generations. Coal mines were closing following the brutal strike.
The last great shipyards were about to disappear, bringing an end to centuries of shipbuilding on the Wear. The communities that had spent generations making things, building things and powering the country and beyond were facing a very uncertain future.
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And then, in 1986, along came that Bluebird. Not the feathered variety – although perhaps it should have been called a Bluebird of Hope as it marked the beginning of an essential chapter in the region’s industrial story.
Nissan represented a green (or blue) shoot of recovery. No, it would not fully replace the mines and the shipyards on which communities were built. Nothing could do that like for like.
But it was still a vote of confidence. A new industry. And, perhaps most importantly, a reason to believe that the North East could reinvent itself without forgetting what it had been. Proof that we could still be trusted to build something, produce something that would make its way around the world like ships and coal.
Forty years later, the numbers are astonishing.
More than 12 million vehicles have now been produced at Nissan’s Sunderland plant – roughly one car every minute and 45 seconds over its history. The plant directly employs around 6,000 people and supports a further 30,000 jobs in the supply chain.
Out of that car plant has grown into an automotive ecosystem stretching all over our region.
I was reminded of that this week while introducing the North East Automotive Alliance Expo at Sunderland’s Beacon of Light, a symbolic venue name to suit the event!
There were more than 100 exhibitors and hundreds of people, many from different parts of the country, representing the businesses, engineers, innovators, suppliers and organisations which make up this sometimes, unsung sector.
And there was something rather fitting about having an actual Nissan Bluebird there too. Because it tells a story.
A great saying I often hear at Durham Big Meeting. ‘The Past We Inherit, The Future We Build’.
It’s a phrase often associated with our mining communities, but it seems equally appropriate for today’s North East.
We inherit the skills, resilience and determination of generations who worked underground, in shipyards, factories and workshops.
Those skills indeed have been passed on even if it is to build something new or different. And there is fresh reason for optimism.
Just days ago, Nissan announced a £170 million investment to build its new Kicks e-POWER hybrid model at Sunderland – the tenth model to be produced at the plant since 1986. What a way to celebrate 40 years.
It will be built alongside the Qashqai, Juke and LEAF, while the all-new, third-generation electric Juke is also due to be manufactured at Sunderland from next year.
So perhaps that Bluebird at the Beacon of Light wasn’t just a car, symbolising the past. Like the NEAA event itself, it was flying into the future.
And judging by what I saw at the Automotive Expo, the sector and the Alliance is all about preparing for what comes next.
It was fantastic to listen to future engineers from Bill Quay Farm School telling me about robotics, tremendous hearing from New College Durham who are pioneers in manufacturing and enthusiastically developing apprentices and awesome to hear the Alliance CEO Paul Butler give a thorough analysis on the North East Local Skills Improvement Plan. This sector is taking the past they inherited, reflecting on it, respecting it and using it as inspiration to continue building a future we can be excited by.
FACTS & FOOTNOTES
The Nissan Leaf, launched in 2010, was one of the world’s first mass-produced electric vehicles.
Nissan was founded in 1933, originating from Yokohama, Japan.
The GT-R and the 350Z have featured prominently in the "Fast and Furious" franchise.