With a prime minister eager to draw in foreign capital, Nissan announced on Friday that it would invest 1.12 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) in its British plant to produce electric versions of two models. This news would come as a boost to the nation’s car industry.

The Japanese carmaker stated that the electric Qashqai and Juke, which are currently made in Sunderland, northeast England, would require an expenditure of up to two billion pounds in total. This investment would include funding for infrastructural improvements and the construction of a third battery facility in Britain.

It is anticipated that the initiative will get government backing.

Nissan has been producing its electric Leaf model in Sunderland for a number of years, and it will keep doing so as long as a modest plant there provides the batteries.

In order to construct a second, 9 gigawatt-hour (GWh) battery factory in Sunderland with Chinese partner Envision AESC, it announced a $1.4 billion investment in 2021.

The agreement sets the stage for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Global Investment Summit the following week, where he would attempt to rekindle interest from foreign businesses that had become less interested in Britain due to Brexit in 2016 and subsequent political unrest.

“Making the UK the best place to do business is at the heart of our economic plan,” Sunak said in a statement on Friday.

There was no comments from Nissan about the value of any subsidies or guarantees being provided by Britain.

“Government support is always important,” Nissan’s senior vice president manufacturing and supply chain Alan Johnson told BBC radio. “Discussions are ongoing with the government, (and are) not concluded.”

Makoto Uchida, the president and CEO of Nissan, will be hosted by Sunak during the summit the following week.

Nissan has been present in Britain since 1986, and this investment will assist sustain 7,000 jobs in Sunderland and 30,000 jobs in the supply chain.

The British corporation views Britain as a vital hub. When other foreign investors were shying away from the UK due to years of uncertainty surrounding its trading agreements following Brexit, its investment in 2021 batteries was a sign of confidence.

However, after taking office as prime minister a year ago, Sunak has made some progress in changing that.

The Nissan agreement was made only a few months after India’s Tata Motors announced plans to invest $4 billion in a UK EV battery plant to supply Jaguar Land Rover manufacturing facilities.

By 2030, Nissan intends to sell entirely electric vehicles in Europe, and it says it will reveal the models’ names and the dates of their production debuts later.

Notwithstanding Sunak’s September announcement of a five-year delay in the sale of new fuel vehicles, the automaker is investing in electric vehicles.

(Adapted from Invesitng.com)

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