| Nissan is building its light commercial vehicle (LCV) business in the US and Russia. It is investing $118 million to expand its Ohio production facility to produce three new vehicles for the US and plans to manufacture in Russia too.
Nissan LCVs already sell in 73 per cent of the world’s markets and form a substantial part of the OEM’s sales. Nissan’s global LCV chief Andy Palmer said: “We already have major operations in Japan, China and Europe so it’s natural that we’re now ready to expand our business in North America and Russia.”
The OEM will produce a range of vehicles below 8-tonne gross vehicle weight for North America, working with suppliers. Powertrain firm Cummins will develop two diesel engines while driveline supplier ZF will produce automatic transmissions for the LCVs.
US manufacturing chief Bill Krueger said: “Canton will be the manufacturing hub for these products, key to our growth in the US. To accommodate the LCVs, Nissan will not produce the next-generation Nissan Quest minivan and Infiniti QX56 luxury SUV at Canton.” Further details of the production shift will follow later.
Nissan will launch six models in Russia by 2011, starting with the NP300 pickup and the Cabstar light duty truck in September, imported from Japan and Spain respectively. In 2009 a new generation small van will be introduced, followed by medium and heavy vans. A minibus could also go on sale in the country.
“We have mid-term plans to build LCVs at the St Petersburg plant,” said Nissan Russia.
© Automotive Engineer, 2008 |
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