CANTON, Miss. — Nissan Motor Co. will start U.S. manufacturing of two new electrical autos beginning in 2025 because the EV pioneer seeks to reclaim relevancy within the now-burgeoning phase.
As a part of the growth, Nissan mentioned Thursday that it’ll make investments $500 million to rework its Canton, Miss., meeting plant right into a “middle for EV manufacturing and know-how.”
The sprawling 4.7 million-square-foot manufacturing facility introduced automotive manufacturing to Mississippi when it opened almost 20 years in the past.
The brand new EVs — one a Nissan mannequin and the opposite an Infiniti — have a sedan-like profile with a sloping roofline and new headlight and taillight designs. Product particulars weren’t revealed.
The fashions will likely be assembled on a brand new line on the Canton manufacturing facility, which has a 410,000-vehicle annual manufacturing capability and builds the Altima midsize sedan and the Frontier and Titan pickups.
However Nissan’s plan to convey electrical sedans to the U.S. is a head-scratcher for some retailers.
“I will be sincere, I am shocked,” mentioned a Nissan supplier, who requested that he not be recognized. “Why on this planet would Nissan be spending their restricted R&D {dollars} creating sedans, when their most necessary market is craving SUVs?”
The Canton challenge is the primary of a number of Nissan investments in EV and battery manufacturing within the U.S. over the subsequent 5 years.
The Japanese automaker is making an $18 billion world wager on electrification that features creating solid-state batteries and delivering 15 battery-electric fashions by 2030.
In its important U.S. market, the place EVs are considered with larger skepticism, Nissan expects battery-only autos to account for 40 p.c of its U.S. gross sales by 2030.
That is formidable, given the automaker’s sole electrical product — the Leaf — accounted for a mere 1.5 p.c of Nissan Group’s U.S. gross sales final yr.
Nissan’s funding plans for brand spanking new EV manufacturing within the U.S., thus far, have been comparatively modest.
Ford and Basic Motors have introduced multibillion-dollar investments in home automobile meeting and battery vegetation.
In the meantime, Toyota mentioned it would make investments $3.4 billion within the U.S. over the subsequent 9 years to develop and localize automotive battery manufacturing.
Lengthy earlier than EVs have been cool, Nissan delivered the primary mass-market mannequin when it launched the Leaf in 2010.
Since then, the automaker has misplaced its lead as conventional and upstart rivals introduced flashier and longer-range BEVs to market.
Now, greater than a decade later, Nissan is gearing up for a second act because it enters the white-hot electrical crossover market.
The Rogue-sized Ariya EV will arrive at U.S. dealerships this fall, going up towards the Volkswagen ID4, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Tesla Mannequin Y.
Whereas it’s nonetheless early within the EV revolution, Nissan is taking part in catch-up in asserting its technique and scope of EV funding within the U.S., mentioned Jeff Schuster, president of world forecasting at LMC Automotive.
“The subsequent wave of EVs will form how aggressive Nissan will likely be on this house,” Schuster mentioned.