Nissan, McLaren, Ford plan 2b pounds in UK investments

Britain's auto industry won investment pledges of 2 billion pounds ($3.1 billion) as Nissan Motor Co. and McLaren Automotive Ltd. announced plans for new cars and the government backed loans for Ford Motor Co. engines.

Nissan will spend 420 million pounds expanding its plant in Sunderland, England, to begin making the Leaf electric-powered vehicle in 2013, the company said today in a statement. The U.K. government, which is also backing the Nissan car, said it will guarantee loans to support Ford's five-year, 1.5 billion-pound project to develop cleaner-burning engines. McLaren said it plans production line for the new MP4-12C supercar.

"What we're seeing is transformative technology as we bring about a transition" to low-carbon-emission vehicles, U.K. Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said today in a Bloomberg Television interview. "I think it's right to secure this in the actions that we've taken."

Industrywide car sales in the U.K. rose 29 percent from a year earlier in the two months through February, helped by the extension of a government "cash-for-clunkers" incentive until the end of March. The guarantees to Ford, along with support offered to General Motors Co. on March 12, are among the first issued under the U.K.'s year-old Automotive Assistance Program aimed at backing manufacturing rather than sales.

Ford received a 360 million-pound guarantee from the U.K. to cover part of a 450 million-pound loan from the European Investment Bank for the development of low-emission car engines. The Dearborn, Michigan-based carmaker said it will do research on and manufacture the gasoline and diesel engines at four locations in the U.K.