The £250 million investment will create around 1000 job opportunities, shortening Britain's Job Centre queues significantly.
Infiniti, Nissan's luxury car brand, aims to manufacture its upcoming premium compact model at the Sunderland plant.
In a bid to rival the established BMW 1 Series and Audi A3, the new model is expected to be based on the Etherea concept car. The underpinnings shall also be identical to that of the current Mercedes A-Class, which will also share the same range of engines.
From launch, the brand is expecting to shift 60,000 units into its current 47 markets worldwide. Such high volume production will make Infiniti the first new brand of this scale to enter the UK in 23 years.
Colin Dodge CBE, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd Executive Vice President and Chief Performance Officer, said: "This milestone, our first premium product to be manufactured at Sunderland, reconfirms our commitment to UK manufacturing and the ongoing success of the plant, which is moving up the value chain.
“Just as important, the new Infiniti, which will be exported around the world, is being developed with help from our London design centre and our European Technical Centre at Cranfield.”
