NISSAN has become the first car brand to notch up a million sales of crossover vehicles in the UK.

Since the Nissan Qashqai invented the crossover segment in 2007 and the Juke created the compact crossover market in 2010, Nissan has been the market leader for UK crossover sales.

Combined sales of both generations of Qashqai and Juke and the current generation X-Trail have now gone platinum making Nissan the first car company to reach the milestone.

The Qashqai has become a main fixture in the UK's top 10 selling cars with the Juke regularly entering the top 15 best-selling models.

Andrew Humberstone, managing director of Nissan Motor (GB) said: "We are thrilled to have reached this unprecedented sales milestone and wish to express sincere gratitude to our customers for putting their trust and loyalty in the quality of Nissan's vehicles."

Of the one million Nissan crossovers sold in the UK, 93 per cent were made at the company's Sunderland plant.

The factory has produced crossovers for Nissan since December 2006 when the first generation Qashqai rolled off the line.

Juke production began in 2010, with the second generations of Qashqai in 2014 and Juke in 2019.

The current generation X-Trail has been produced at Nissan's Kyushu plant in Japan since 2014 and accounted for seven per cent of the one million UK sales.