It was clear that if Sunderland misplaced the Qashqai, which accounted for over half of its production, principally for export, the medium and long-time period prospects for a plant dropping scale could be bleak. The car big introduced in 2016 that it planned to build the mannequin at its plant in Sunderland, however will now assemble it as a substitute at Nissan's global manufacturing hub in Kyushu, Japan.