The 500,000th Nissan Qashqai has rolled off the production line at the Japanese carmaker’s Sunderland plant in a record-breaking time of just 21 months since assembly commenced. As a result, the second-generation compact crossover now holds the record for the fastest time taken for a UK-built vehicle to hit the half million milestone – beating out the previous holder, the Austin/Morris 1100/1300, which took 29 months.
“The Nissan Qashqai is going from strength to strength,” commented Nissan Europe chairman, Paul Willcox. “Half a million Qashqais in just 21 months is an astonishing achievement and proof that the Qashqai is hitting the spot with buyers,” he added. Since production commenced in January 2014, records show that a Qashqai is built every 62 seconds with 20% of the total delivered to customers within the UK itself.
Globally, production of the Nissan Qashqai has topped 2.5 million units. Also, a plant in St. Petersburg, Russia is expected to commence production of the Nissan Qashqai in the near future – units assembled at said facility will be destined for local consumption only.
Unveiled in 2014, the second-gen Nissan Qashqai is based on the CMF platform developed by Renault-Nissan. Looking very much the third-generation Nissan X-Trail, the crossover is also wider than its predecessor by 20 mm as well as being longer (an increase of 49 mm). However, it sits closer to the ground by being 15 mm lower than the first-generation model.
Two petrol and a two diesel engines are offered. Beginning with the petrol mills, a 1.2 litre DIG-T engine with 115 PS and 190 Nm, a larger 1.6 litre DIG-T powerplant with 150 PS and 240 Nm sits alongside. As for the oil burners, 1.5 litre dCi with 110 PS is offered along with a 1.6 litre dCi with 130 PS.
