CONSTRUCTION officially got under way yesterday on Nissan’s electric car battery plant in the North-East.

The facility, next to the car firm’s Sunderland plant, will produce advanced lithiumion batteries from early 2012, creating 200 jobs at Nissan and about 600 in the supply chain.

Toshiyuki Shiga, chief operating officer of Nissan Motor Co, carried out the ground-breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the £210m project.

The plant will have an initial annual production capacity of 60,000 units and will supply batteries for Nissan and Renault electric vehicles, including the Nissan Leaf, as part of an alliance between the two.

The alliance has also announced that a second battery facility will be located in Cacia, Portugal, and batteries will also be made at Renault’s Flins plant, in France.

Last month, Nissan confirmed that Sunderland will carry out European production of the Leaf from 2013.

Mr Shiga said: “Europe will play a key role in the alliance’s global commitment to offer an emission-free future for road transport, and today marks another important step towards that goal.

“When operational, the battery plants in both Sunderland and Portugal will support the launch of zero-emission electric vehicles across Europe on an unprecedented scale.”