ONE of the most powerful figures in the European automotive sector has said he believes plants such as Nissan’s Sunderland operation proved that Britain still had a thriving car industry.

Ivan Hodac, secretarygeneral of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, said it was not important who owned the car manufacturers, but rather where the vehicles are produced.

He said: “When it is claimed you don’t have a car industry, it isn’t true. It doesn’t mean the brand has to be British.

“It is not important whether it is Nissan, Skoda or Jaguar, the important thing is that it is here and it creates investment.”

He believes the North-East remained an important European centre for car production, adding: “It is obviously a very important auto manufacturing base, there is no doubt about it.

“We don’t want to lose it.

That is not just this region, it is the EU – we don’t want to lose the manufacturing base to other countries.”

Mr Hodac’s comments came as Nissan prepares to start production on the new Juke model in Sunderland, and awaits a decision on whether it will be chosen to produce the Leaf electric car.

Mr Hodac, in the region as keynote speaker at the North- East Economic Forum’s annual dinner, held in Newcastle last night, said he could not comment on whether the Leaf should be built here.

But he believed electric vehicle development was important for the future of the European car industry.

Sunderland has already been named as the site for Nissan’s European centre for electric car battery production.

The Government has also designated the North-East as the UK’s first Low Carbon Economic Area (LCEA), specialising in ultra-low carbon vehicles.

Mr Hodac said: “I think the industry has been looking for a long time for the best technology to bring down CO2 emissions and produce environmentally- friendly vehicles.

“I remember, five to ten years ago, not many people spoke about electric cars.

“Suddenly it has picked up and everyone has introduced it. I think you will see by 2020 that five to ten per cent of all cars will be electric.

“When you see what is happening, I am almost proud of working for the industry because two to three years ago, we were almost painted as the tobacco industry.

“People have to realise you need personal mobility, it provides access to education, access to jobs. There is no question we will get away from cars, but you have to make them more sustainable and more fuel efficient.”

Last year, the region was selected to take part in the world’s largest trial testing of the day-to-day viability of electric vehicles and hundreds of recharging points are also being installed around the North-East.

Mr Hodac said that he was impressed with measures taken, but he added: “I think it is a good opportunity for the region to do this but the cars aren’t going to stay here, they are going to move all over the place.

“If the UK Government and other governments are serious in supporting the roll out of electric vehicles then you need the infrastructure across the whole country.”