Nissan Aims to Build Fourth Assembly Plant in China

Nissan Motor Co. plans to invest as much as 40 billion yen ($495 million) to open a factory near Dalian in northeastern China in 2014 with venture partner Dongfeng Motor Group Co., news reports say.

The plant would add 200,000 units of annual capacity to Nissan's current total of about 1 million vehicles in China, according to Japan's The Nikkei. It says the facility will make the Nissan Murano crossover and X-Trail SUV and eventually unidentified electric vehicles for sale in China, other Asian countries and Russia.

It is unclear whether Nissan has received government approval to build the factory.

Access to a major port and proximity to Nissan's plant in Kyushu, Japan, were major factors in the choice of Dalian, according to The Nikkei. It says the two assembly plants will be able to share suppliers, and Nissan will be able to ship batteries and other EV components to Dalian from Kyushu.

Nissan also intends to produce vehicles under its Infiniti luxury brand at an existing facility in Xiangyang in central China, perhaps as soon as next year, reports say. Nissan expects China to be Infiniti's biggest market by about 2016.

Nissan boosted its sales in China 22% to a record 1.2 million vehicles last year and aims to sell 1.4 million units there this year.