Automotive industry in the United Kingdom to Britain from 1975, later launching a hatchback model (the Polonez) alongside it. However, by 1998, Skoda was the only Eastern European carmaker still importing cars to Britain, now competing with budget-priced Far Eastern cars from the likes of Daewoo, Kia, Hyundai and Proton. Nissan had axed the Datsun brand by 1984 and used its own name on all cars, and in 1986 opened a factory in Britain near Sunderland, which produced the mid-range Bluebird hatchbacks and saloons, although it was the Japanese-built Micra which was the company's best-selling car in Britain during the 1980s. The decade also saw the
Automotive Energy Supply Corporation a further ¥100 billion ($1.1 billion) in AESC, establishing an additional factory to increase capacity for around 200,000 vehicles per year. Trial production at Zama began mid 2009. In 2010 the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle began production, using batteries from AESC. In 2014 AESC was the second largest electric vehicle battery manufacturer worldwide (after Panasonic), with 21% of the market. In late 2014 Reuters reported conflict within the Nissan / Renault carmaker alliance over sourcing of battery packs for its Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK and Nissan Smyrna assembly plant (USA) car battery plants due to lack of price competitiveness with