There's always a lot of publicity and interest when a new exotic supercar or an expensive, powerful sports car from a luxury brand goes into production. But for the industry as a whole, it's the bread and butter models that are really important as they're the ones that generate the big bucks. So, it's always an important day when a new generation of a big-selling volume model goes into full production. It's, therefore, a big moment for Nissan as the new version of its incredibly popular Qashqai crossover has just started rolling off the production lines at its factory in Sunderland in the UK.
The Qashqai is already the biggest-selling crossover in Europe, so it's important for the company's bottom line that momentum continues or even increases with the arrival of the new model. The upgrades this time around concentrated in four key areas, which are a contemporary new exterior design, improved levels of interior quality, enhanced driving performance, and the introduction of some of Nissan's new Intelligent Mobility technologies.
Perhaps one of the most important features of the new Qashqai will be the availability of Nissan's new ProPILOT autonomous driving capability. The system is capable of controlling the crossover's steering, acceleration and braking in a single lane on highways while the vehicle is in heavy traffic and during high-speed cruising.
The Qashqai has proved to be so popular in the past that Nissan has invested heavily in creating additional production capacity at its Sunderland facility to cope with the expected high demand for the new model. From now on, the Qashqai will be able to be produced on both production lines at the plant in the north east of England.
In fact, the crossover is produced right around the clock in Sunderland, and as well as being Europe's best-selling crossover, the Qashqai is also currently the best-selling vehicle built in Britain. From the UK factory, the Qashqai is exported to somewhere in the region of 100 European and global markets. The Qashqai actually represents almost 20 percent of all British-made cars and is the most successful model ever in Europe for the Japanese auto giant.
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