Nissan, along with two Sunderland-based automotive suppliers, have teamed up to provide the seats for a new Royal Navy submarine.
The carmaker is working with Lear and Adient, both of which are Tier 1 suppliers to Nissan Sunderland, as well as the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to supply seats for HMS Anson.
The nuclear-powered submarine is 97 metres long and has a displacement of 7,800 tonnes.
It is the fifth of seven in the Astute class, which are recognised as the most technologically advanced attack submarines ever operated by the Royal Navy.
Nissan provided its zero gravity seats to be installed on HMS Anson which will be used for their submarine commander and senior engineer.
Keith Chambers, production control director at Nissan Sunderland, said: “We are extremely proud to provide two of our specially designed zero gravity car seats for the Royal Navy’s new submarine HMS Anson.
“The seats are from our newly electrified Juke Hybrid and Qashqai e-POWER models.
“It’s fantastic to team up with Sunderland City Council and two of our long-term local suppliers to add a flavour of our region’s automotive manufacturing excellence to the development of this state of the art submarine.”
Adient produces 100,000 seat sets per year from its Wearside plant. Vice present consumer group Mick Flanagan said: “It’s a privilege to be able to gift seats for this remarkable submarine. At Adient we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of industry trends and technologies and the technology in this vessel is truly cutting edge.”
Lear has more than 250 facilities in 38 countries, including at its Sunderland plant.
Gideon Jewel, president seating Europe, Africa & Middle East at Lear, added: “Lear always aim to offer support to the communities in which we do business. Lear Sunderland is a high performing operation with a strong and diverse team supporting Nissan.”
The project has also been supported by the business investment team at Sunderland City Council, which helped bring the group together.
