Nissan has underlined the efficiency of its Sunderland car plan with the production of its 500,000th Qashqai crossover SUV.

It took workers 21 months to achieve the feat, the shortest time for any British-built car to reach the milestone. Since its launch in 2013, a new car has been finished every 62 seconds. Four in five have been produced for export markets.

Nissan said the previous record was held by the Austin/Morris 1100/1300 range in the 1960s, which reached 500,000 units in 29 months.

The report in the Daily Telegraph came a week after Nissan announced £100m extra investment in the Sunderland assembly plant to equip it ready for production of the next generation Juke B-segment crossover.