Nissan Hints At Building New U.S. Auto Plant Within Five Years

By Jamie ButtersBloomberg

Nissan Motor Co. is squeezing all it can from its U.S. assembly plants and will need to build a new factory if it keeps growing in the lucrative American auto market, a top executive said.

“At some point, we may need it,” Jose Munoz, the chairman of Nissan North America, said in reference to more U.S. production capacity. The addition would have to be a standalone new factory because the company’s existing plants in Tennessee and Mississippi are “maxed out,” Munoz said during an interview in Detroit.

Building another factory in the U.S. would likely appease President Donald Trump, who has pressured Japanese car manufacturers to make more vehicles in America. While Nissan already has the most productive auto plant in all of North America in Smyrna, Tennessee, the company also imports several models from Japan and is the top car producer in Mexico.Trump prodded Japanese automakers during a visit to Tokyo earlier this month to “try building your cars in the United States instead of shipping them over.” He praised Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp.’s plan to build a $1.6 billion joint car factory at a still-undecided U.S. site, an investment that Trump called “big stuff.”

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