Nissan Creates Business Incubator in UK for Electric Vehicle Industry

Nissan has teamed with Gateshead College in Sunderland, England, to create the Zero Emission Centre of Excellence, a business incubator for electric vehicles. The center will initially focus on how to build a charging infrastructure and planning a second life for batteries. 

Nissan already has a relationship with Gateshead College due to the company's factory in Sunderland. Nissan has used the college for training and development of its workers and already have two other initiatives in progress: The Gateshead College Skills Academy for Sustainable Manufacturing and Innovation and the Zero Carbon Futures Performance Track.

The new center will build up to 1000 of Nissan's quick chargers each year and work to find uses for spent batteries from Nissan vehicles. 

"For many of these aspects of our business we will need commercial partners, funding or the agreement of public and private entities and this agreement with Gateshead College will help us do that. With production of the Nissan LEAF coming to Sunderland in early 2013, the North East will become the epicenter of electric vehicle expertise in Europe," said Etienne Henry, Vice President of Product Strategy and Planning at Nissan International.