{"id":4772,"date":"2022-02-18T00:54:58","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T05:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/?p=4772"},"modified":"2022-02-18T00:54:58","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T05:54:58","slug":"nissan-usa-to-produce-two-entirely-new-evs-in-canton-mississippi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/nissan-usa-to-produce-two-entirely-new-evs-in-canton-mississippi\/","title":{"rendered":"Nissan USA to produce two entirely new EVs in Canton, Mississippi"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2021
Nissan’s Leaf was once the world’s EV sales leader, but it’s now overshadowed by more exciting alternatives that provide greater range.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Nissan\u2019s Leaf<\/a> was once the global dominant force in the electric vehicle industry, and instrumental in relieving \u201crange anxiety\u201d for thousands of EV buyers, it\u2019s no longer king of the plug-in hill, despite offering up to 364 in range when upgrading to its \u201cPlus\u201d trim line. Plenty of competitors now provide greater travel distances on a single charge, making them more practical for everyday use, especially now that advanced electrical and battery storage systems allow for quicker charging.<\/p>\n

Tesla now leads EV sales by wide margins in the U.S.<\/a> and Canada<\/a>, while strong competitors from Chevrolet<\/a>, Volkswagen<\/a>, Hyundai<\/a> and Kia promise to make Nissan\u2019s life difficult, with the Leaf<\/a> only placing fifth most popular amongst EVs in Canada last year, and sixth in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"2019
The updated Canton plant may build a production version of the 2019 Nissan Ariya Concept in 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To remedy the problem, Nissan just announced a $500-million USD investment in its Canton, Mississippi plant, which will transform it from merely producing trucks, to soon producing electric vehicles by 2025. Nissan will retain and upskill 2,000 workers from the facility\u2019s current roster of 5,000 employees, which will make Mississippi Nissan\u2019s centre for electric vehicle manufacturing and technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s announcement is the first of several new investments that will drive the EV revolution in the United States,\u201d stated Ashwani Gupta, chief operating officer for Nissan Motor Corporation, Ltd. \u201cNissan is making a strong investment in Canton\u2019s future, bringing the latest technology, training and process to create a truly best-in-class EV manufacturing team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2019
Nissan mentioned the Infiniti name when referring to future models built at the upgraded facility, so it’s possible a production version of the 2019 Infiniti QX Inspiration Concept might make the grade.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While this is only a small portion of the $13.5 billion of overall investment Nissan has sunk into its U.S. manufacturing operations thus far (of which $4 billion has previously been invested in Canton alone), the automaker is projecting that 40 percent of new vehicle purchases will be for fully electric vehicles by the year 2030, making this investment critical for its future prospects.<\/p>\n

Even more electrified models will be sold as hybrids and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles before that time, which is why the \u201cNissan Ambition 2030\u201d project targets 23 electrified models within its namesake and Infiniti brands globally by 2030, of which 15 are slated to be fully electric.<\/p>\n

\"2022
Could a hybrid or electric version of the new Nissan Frontier be on the way?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Canton assembly plant, created in 2003, currently builds four Nissan models including the Altima<\/a>, Frontier<\/a>, Titan<\/a> and Titan XD<\/a>. It has produced almost 5 million vehicles over 19 years, and according to a recent announcement, will have two all-new fully electric models in production in three years time.<\/p>\n

The Leaf<\/a>, which is produced in Smyrna, Tennessee (for U.S. consumption), won\u2019t have its production transferred to the updated Mississippi facility, so therefore it\u2019s likely the two new models will be a production version of the Nissan Ariya Concept, which debuted in 2019, and possibly something along the lines of the 2019 Infiniti QX Inspiration Concept. Both are mid-size crossover SUV prototypes, which would make for a good target market to attract the most possible buyers.<\/p>\n

\"2014
Who wouldn’t want to see a renewed Xterra with optional hybrid and electric drivetrains?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also interesting is Nissan\u2019s choice of combining electric vehicle and truck production under one roof. This could potentially lead to electrified 4×4-capable models, similar to what Toyota is doing with its new Tundra hybrid pickup<\/a>, not to mention Ford with its new F-150 Lightning<\/a> and Chevrolet with its fully electric Silverado. Likewise, GMC introduced a renewed Hummer sub-brand with a fully electric pickup and SUV, plus upstart Rivian has made waves with its new truck and utility models.<\/p>\n

\"2021
Nissan’s NV commercial van lineup might be dead for now, but a series of electric vans could resuscitate the project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hybrid and all-electric versions of the new Frontier<\/a> also make sense, as would electrified trims of the Titan<\/a>, if Nissan keeps that model on the road (it was recently discontinued in Canada). Future off-road-capable SUVs, which could be based on these pickups, could potentially go up against Toyota 4Runner\u2019s<\/a> and full-size Sequoia<\/a> (the latter totally redesigned for 2023<\/a>), while Nissan might want to consider basing a new Xterra on the back of its Frontier<\/a>, a model that could go head-to-head with Jeep\u2019s Wrangler<\/a> and Ford\u2019s new Bronco<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, electric commercial vans would be a possibility as well, despite Nissan having discontinued its full-size NV Cargo<\/a> and NV Passenger vans<\/a>, plus its NV200 compact van<\/a> up last September. A fleet of commercial EVs could revitalize this segment for Nissan, while simultaneously expanding the automaker\u2019s important fleet customer base for its \u201cSeamless Autonomous Mobility (SAM)\u201d driving technologies.<\/p>\n

Story credit: Trevor Hofmann<\/p>\n

Photo credits: Nissan and Infiniti<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Nissan\u2019s Leaf was once the global dominant force in the electric vehicle industry, and instrumental in relieving \u201crange anxiety\u201d for thousands of EV buyers, it\u2019s no longer king of the plug-in hill, despite offering up to 364 in range when upgrading to its \u201cPlus\u201d trim line. Plenty of competitors now provide greater travel distances […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[780,42,779,234,41,40,34,85,97,161,781,782],"class_list":["post-4772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carcostcanada","tag-assembly","tag-bev","tag-canton","tag-electric","tag-ev","tag-hev","tag-hybrid","tag-infiniti","tag-nissan","tag-phev","tag-plant","tag-production"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4772"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4784,"href":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4772\/revisions\/4784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/articles.carcostcanada.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}