Nissan May Delay Shifting SUV Output to U.S.

The weakening yen has prompted Nissan Motor Co. to postpone plans to move production of its Rogue and Murano crossover vehicles from Japan to the U.S., according to The Nikkei.

The Tokyo-based newspaper, which cites no sources, notes that Nissan had planned to begin relocating about 200,000 units of annual output to American facilities as soon as this autumn.

Such a shift would have cut Nissan's domestic capacity from 1.2 million units to about 950,000 by the end of the fiscal year that began April 1. The company still intends to make the transfer but will monitor exchange rates to determine when, according to The Nikkei. It says Nissan also will add new models in Japan to maintain local output above 1 million units per year.

The yen has dropped this year to a four-year low against the dollar. The decline improves the profitability of Japanese-made vehicles sold overseas.