NISSAN'S five millionth car to be produced at its North-East plant will roll off the production line today.

The milestone coincides with a visit by the company's president, Carlos Ghosn, to the plant in Washington, Wearside.

The plant, which is responsible for one-fifth of the total car production in the country, has been a major success story for the North-East region since the first Bluebird car rolled off the production line in 1986.

Since the project to build the plant was announced in 1984, Nissan has invested more than £2bn in the factory.

In 1986, there was a single shift and the factory produced fewer than 5,000 units a year.

Last year, it built a record 353,000 Qashqai, Note and two Micra models.

The five millionth car is understood to be a Qashqai.

The plant, which employs 4,200 people, will build the new Qashqai+2 from August, before it goes on sale in October.

A third shift at the plant, which starts later this month, has created 800 jobs, which will take the workforce to 5,000.

The shift is being introduced in part because of the success of the original Qashqai, which has been built there since December 2006, and also as a result of plans for the new model to be made there.

The future is also looking bright with Nissan announcing last month that it wants to become the world leader in electricpowered vehicles over the next five years.

The company said it would introduce a zero-emission vehicle in the US and Japan in 2010, and mass-market vehicles around the world in 2012 - making it the first manufacturer to commit to plans to mass-market all-electric vehicles worldwide.

A spokesman for the company said it was too early to say whether the electric vehicles would be made at the Washington plant.

Nissan sold a record 3,770,000 vehicles worldwide last year, an increase of 8.2 per cent.