Nissan Hints at Third U.S. Assembly Plant

Nissan Motor Co. indicates it may need to add another assembly plant in the U.S. within about five years.

Jose Munoz, chairman of the carmaker’s operations in North America, tells Bloomberg News that Nissan’s existing factories in Canton, Miss., and Smyrna, Tenn., are at full capacity and cannot be expanded. He says the company may need additional local capacity “at some point.”

The Smyrna facility, which can make 640,000 vehicles per year, has been honored as the most productive auto assembly complex in North America. The plant manufactures Altima and maxima sedans, Leaf electric cars and Infiniti QX60 midsize luxury crossover vehicles.

Nissan’s Canton factory has capacity to build 450,000 vehicles annually. The complex currently produces the Altima sedan, Murano SUV, NV commercial van, Frontier midsize pickup truck and Titan large pickup.

Nissan also imports vehicles from Japan and has capacity in Mexico to manufacture more than 800,000 units per year. Last year the company’s sales of passenger vehicles in the U.S. rose 5% to 1.48 million units, according to Autodata Corp. Volume through the first 10 months of 2017 grew 2%.