Story: DAVID WILKINS

BUSINESS buyers are keeping Nissan’s UK factories ticking over nicely, with British-built models accounting for 89% of the Japanese manufacturer’s company car and fleet sales.

Nissan’s best fleet seller is the Qashqai, with 19,309 sales to companies, although the Nissan Juke is also becoming more popular, with business sales more than doubling compared with last year to 8,965.

The Qashqai+2 and Note, which like the Qashqai and the Juke are built in the UK, racked up company sales of 4,965 and 6,005 respectively.

The all-electric Leaf – currently imported from Japan but expected to be built in the UK in future – achieved 458 sales to companies, more than twice the level achieved last year.

“It’s good to see our British-built products are proving a winner with company car drivers,” said Nissan fleet sales director Barry Beeston,”Qashqai keeps going from strength to strength with residuals remaining strong and we are seeing LEAF gain momentum in the corporate sector. Overall a strong performance and one to build on further going into 2013,” he added.