Nissan North America on Monday announced it will build and sell three new vehicles in North America in the Light Commercial vehicle (LCV) segment. The first new LCV will be designed specifically for North America, and will launch in the first half of 2010. Nissan partnered up with Cummins to supply two clean diesel engines and ZF to build automatic transmissions for its LCVs, which will remain under eight tons in Gross Vehicle Weight.
The Japanese maker’s Canton, Mississippi plant will act as the manufacturing hub for the commercial vehicles in North America. In addition to tooling and equipment necessary for the manufacture of the three new vehicles, Nissan will invest $118 million into the plant. To make room, production of the next-generation Nissan Quest minivan and Infiniti QX56 SUV will shift elsewhere from Canton.
“We already have major operations in Japan, China and Europe, and so it is natural that we are now ready to expand our business in North America,” said Andy Palmer, Nissan ’s head of global LCV business in a statement, adding LCV sales are a substantial part of Nissan’s profits.
Heading the operation in North America as vice president will be Joe Castelli, who comes over from Ford . LCV dealers will be selected from Nissan’s current stores.
