Nissan is to build a new compact model, called the Invitation, at its Sunderland factory.

尼桑将要在桑德兰分厂制造新式紧凑车，名曰Invitation。

The official announcement will be made later at the Geneva motor show.

The Japanese carmaker said that its £125m investment would create 2,000 jobs. The government is supporting the project with a £9.3m grant.

Nissan said that 400 of the new jobs would be in its Sunderland plant, and it estimates 1,600 jobs will be created in the supply chain.

"When we've looked at the numbers before, it's usually for every one person employed in the facility there is four in the local supply base," Trevor Mann, managing director of Nissan UK told BBC News.

Production of the new compact car is scheduled to start from mid-2013.

'Very positive'

Business Secretary Vince Cable told the BBC that the news was "a really great announcement".

He added: "It is very positive, but you can't see this in isolation¹, because the other big car companies have also made major commitments to the UK.

"Jaguar² Land Rover, Ford³, BMW Mini, are all putting in more money and bringing back supply chain."

The additional investment in Nissan's Sunderland facility will increase its workforce⁴ to 6,000, a record high for the factory.

The plant currently makes Nissan's Qashqai, Jule and Note models, producing 480,000 vehicles in 2011.