British executives have increased their global importance within Nissan as the UK becomes an increasingly crucial location for the Japanese automaker, which aims to topple Toyota as Europe’s top-selling Asian brand by 2016.

The rise has coincided with the enormous success of the automaker’s plant in Sunderland, northeast England. Last month, British executives Andy Palmer and Trevor Mann were promoted to the top echelon just below Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in a reorganization that saw the company’s chief operating officer role split into three different posts.

In the same month, Nissan unveiled the new Qashqai, the second-generation of the breakthrough compact crossover built in Sunderland. The crossover has been so successful that even in its run-out year it was the region’s No. 8-seller through three quarters, according to JATO Dynamics.

The popularity of the car and the efficiency of the factory that builds it have helped push British executives ever higher up the corporate ladder, said analyst Jonathon Poskitt at LMC Automotive.

“The success of the Sunderland operation ensures that British workers are well regarded within the organization,” he said.

As part of Nissan’s management changes Mann, 52, becomes the company’s global chief performance officer. The former head of the Sunderland plant starts his new job on Jan. 1 while also remaining Nissan head of Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East.

Nissan’s current chief performance officer, Briton Colin Dodge, 58, was given a new role managing special projects and will report directly to Ghosn. Dodge also starts the new job on Jan. 1.

Palmer, 50, the current head of global product planning and marketing, became chief planning officer last month. He leads global sales, product planning, communications and marketing. In addition, Palmer will oversee Nissan’s electric vehicle and battery business.

Also last month Nissan promoted Daniel Griffiths, a 55-year-old native of Northern Ireland, to managing director of its European operations and head of global labor relations. The changes take effect on Jan. 1. Griffiths, who was personnel director at the Sunderland plant from 2006 until 2008, keeps his current job as chief security officer for Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East.

Like Dodge, Mann joined Nissan to prepare the brand new Sunderland plant for the start of production back in 1986.

Mann stated at the launch of the new Qashqai last month that the tenacity of those who lived in the former shipbuilding and mining town were a good fit within Nissan. “The British people, particularly those brought up in Sunderland, have a fighting spirit and they like to achieve,” he said. The Japanese and British worked well together, he said: “There are a lot of similarities. We’re both island nations, we’re both gentlemanly and honorable and it just seems to work culturally.”

Could a Briton eventually lead the company? Ghosn says he wants a Japanese national to succeed him at the helm. “It’s symbolic, and we have plenty of Japanese talent. I want Nissan to be continued to be seen as a Japanese company,” he said at the Tokyo auto show in November. “Despite Ghosn’s statement, the UK’s importance to Nissan is growing.

By 2001, the Sunderland plant had become the most productive in Europe, according to the Automotive Productivity Index produced by the World Markets Research Centre. Production last year reached 510,572 vehicles, a record for a UK automotive plant and more than the combined car production of Italy for the year. The Qashqai’s success has accelerated the growth of Sunderland since the model replaced the Almera in 2007. Last year, Nissan sold 207,193 Qashqais in Europe. At the press launch last month in London for the new-generation crossover, which goes on sale in January 2014, Ghosn said the Qashqai would play a key role in Nissan’s bid to pass Toyota to become Europe’s top Asian automaker.

Sunderland has produced more than 1.5 million first-generation Qashqais. The current and new generations were designed and engineered in the UK. Nissan also has a technical center in Cranfield, near London, which was opened in 1988 and established its European design center in Paddington, central London, 10 years ago.

While Nissan’s European headquarters are in Rolle, Switzerland, almost half of the automaker’s 14,500 European workers are employed in the UK.