Nissan may be planning four US-built EV models

Nissan released more details about the timetable and the models it plans to build in the USA. This comes after the carmaker said last year that it would invest 500 million US dollars in its Canton assembly plant in Mississippi to build electric models for Nissan and Infiniti.

According to supplier production plans, Nissan will initially produce two electric sedans in Canton, which should launch in 2026. Two electric crossover models will follow by 2028. The plant, which currently produces internal combustion cars, has an annual capacity of 410,000 vehicles and operates presently at just over half capacity.

When the rebuild was announced in February 2022, the carmaker said the first two electric models for Nissan and Infiniti would go into production in 2025. Although there is now talk of the two vehicles “coming to market” in 2026, this does not necessarily mean a delay in the plans. Both statements would apply if the first vehicles come off the production line at the end of 2025 but are not delivered to customers until 2026.

According to media reports, Nissan manager David Johnson, who is responsible for the conversion, explained that “Canton will be North America’s electrification hub for the next five to six years. That’s where we’re going to bring in the new platforms, the new technology.” Nissan is already preparing for the plant’s transformation. Although the assembly lines are not expected to arrive until next year, he said, workforce training is already underway.

Nissan currently manufactures four internal combustion models in Canton: the Altima sedan and the Frontier, Titan and Titan XD pickup ranges. So, if the information about two electric sedans and two electric crossovers (presumably one each for Nissan and Infiniti) is correct, there would be no electric pickup truck from the plant.

Nissan is also reportedly planning a $250 million investment in its Decherd engine plant in Tennessee to increase production of electric motors in the US. Nissan plans to launch 23 electrified models worldwide by then, including 15 all-electric models, as part of its “Ambition 2030” strategy. In the US, 40 per cent of sales in this target year will be of all-electric vehicles.

The models produced in the US will be based on a new, as yet unspecified platform. It will thus only have a slight technical similarity to Nissan’s latest electric model, the Ariya. Nissan has been delivering the Ariya in the US since late 2022, and in the first half of 2023 delivered 5,195 examples of the crossover based on the Alliance CMF-EV platform there. Of the second-generation Leaf, 4,234 vehicles were delivered to US customers in the same period.

autonews.com (paywall) via electrek.co (deliveries)