"THE whole of the UK is very proud of you." That was David Cameron's message to workers at a history-making North-East car plant.

The Prime Minister hailed the region's manufacturing industry as he attended the official opening ceremony for production of the groundbreaking Nissan Leaf electric car.

The Japanese manufacturer is investing £420m in the project which will create 560 jobs at the plant and 1,500 jobs at supply companies across the North-East.

"This is an extraordinary success story, but I accept that we must create more jobs in this region," Mr Cameron told The Northern Echo. "The North-East has shown that given the opportunity it can compete with the best in the world. Its an example to manufacturers across the country.

"Workers here have shown that we can and we can do it brilliantly," he added.

"We can say to the rest of the world that we are one of the top ten manufacturing countries in the world and we produce great cars. We are producing record numbers of cars and we are about making the cars of the future.

Mr Cameron was shown around the factory and got the chance to stick a Nissan badge onto the front of one of the cars fresh off the production line. He also took part in a traditional Japanese good luck ceremony, when he coloured in the eye of a Daruma doll, which former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had done when the plant first opened 26 years ago. After speaking at the launch Mr Cameron was taken to the factory canteen where he ate lunch with some of the workers.

The Government has taken steps to back the plug-in car market. Last month, it announced a £37m investment into the UK's electric vehicle charging infrastructure, including a 75 per cent contribution to people installing charging points at home.

Today's (Thursday, March 28) launch came three years after Nissan confirmed the Sunderland plant had won the race to build the Leaf for the European market.

The five-seater hatchback, which is the world's first mass market electric vehicle, goes on sale this summer. It can travel about 125 miles on a single charge powered by high tech batteries which are being made at a new facility beside the Sunderland factory.

The Leaf is the first of five new Nissan models being built in the North-East over the next three years.

Dr Colin Herron, a low carbon vehicle specialist and managing director of the UK's largest vehicle recharging network, said: "The Leaf could have gone anywhere in Europe, but the North-East had the balls to bring it here."

Nissan plans to export most of the new vehicles to motorists on the Continent and Scandinavia.

"This is the culmination of four year's hard work," said Andy Palmer Nissan's executive vice president, who had jetted in from Japan for the celebrations. "We have been showing that you can operate a world-beating plant in the UK for almost 30 years, and the construction of the battery plant is a vote of confidence in the country's ability to support high-technology manufacturing."

The Japanese manufacturer was reluctant to disclose how many it expected to make in the year ahead. About 50 rolled off the production line today (March 28) before the plant shut down for a planned Easter break.

Nissan would not reveal how much the new Leaf range will cost, but The Northern Echo understands that the basic models start at about £20,000 after a £5,000 Government subsidy on electric vehicles is deducted.

The model being made at Sunderland boasts 100 refinements, including reduced charging times, on the first generation Leaf models, which have been made in Japan.