Nissan plans to spend $500 million to turn its Canton Vehicle Assembly Plant in Canton, MS, into a center for battery-electric-vehicle production.
The automaker expects the investment to preserve the jobs of 2,000 employees who will build two all-new BEVs beginning in 2025. One of the vehicles will be for the Nissan brand, while the other will be for Infiniti.
“Today’s announcement is the first of several new investments that will drive the EV revolution in the United States,” says Ashwani Gupta, chief operating officer for Nissan. The automaker will invest $18 billion in electrification internationally over the next five years, he says.
The plant employs approximately 5,000 people and has built nearly 5 million vehicles since opening in 2003. It currently builds four models: the Altima midsize sedan and Frontier, Titan and Titan XD pickups.
Nissan was one of the first automakers to sell a modern BEV in the U.S. when it introduced the Leaf in 2010. The subcompact Leaf is built at Nissan’s assembly plant in Smyrna, TN.
The Canton announcement supports the Nissan Ambition 2030 plan calling for 23 electrified models for the Nissan and Infiniti brands globally, including 15 all-electric vehicles, by 2030. As part of this effort, Nissan is targeting 40% of its U.S. vehicle sales volume to be fully electric by 2030, with even more to be electrified.
“By 2030, we envisage that the majority of Infiniti models sold globally will be electrified,” Infiniti Chairman Peyman Kargar says. “In confirming one of the future locations where our new generation of electric products will be built, we progress towards achieving this goal.”
Nissan is setting a goal of achieving carbon neutrality across the company’s global operations and the lifecycle of its products by 2050 by pursuing further innovations in electrification and manufacturing technology.
With its latest announcement, Nissan now has invested $4 billion in the Canton facility. The automaker has invested more than $13 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations collectively.
The State of Mississippi, which helped build the infrastructure around the plant, is preparing to offer Nissan additional assistance.
