Nissan Reveals Light-Commercial Direction at Next Detroit Auto Show

Nissan Reveals Light-Commercial Direction at Next Detroit Auto Show

By Bill Visnic

CASCAIS, Portugal – Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., eager to enter North America’s rapidly transforming light-commercial vehicle (LCV) market, will signal type of vehicles it intends to offer with an unveiling at the Detroit auto show in January, said William J. Krueger, Nissan North America Inc.’s senior vice president-manufacturing, purchasing and supply chain management for The Americas.

Nissan announced in early April it will produce and sell three LCVs for North America beginning in the first half of 2010. The plan accomplishes two Nissan goals: adds the U.S. to its markets for its commercial vehicles and fills up its Canton, Miss., plant.

Although Nissan manufactures an extensive range of LCVs and sells in every other major world market, the company never attempted to sell the vehicles in the U.S.

Anxious to dedicate capacity at its Canton, Miss., assembly plant to production of the presumably more-profitable LCVs, Nissan also said at the time the Infi niti QX56 SUV and Quest minivan currently made in Canton would be shifted to Japan. More significant was Nissan’s recent agreement with Chrysler LLC that will see Chrysler building the next-generation Titan pickup truck – also currently assembled in Canton – at a Chrysler plant in Mexico.  Nissan is spending $118 million to retool Canton to build the LCVs.

“We’ll have greater potential for higher volume,” with the LCVs than the passenger pickups and SUVs currently built at Canton, Krueger told AutoObserver at a media event here. In direct reference to the ongoing shift of consumer buying away from large, fuel-hungry pickups and SUVs, Krueger also says the LCV market is “more stable.”

Most of the investment at Canton will be to reconfigure the paint shop, he said, to accommodate the taller, wider and longer LCVs. With the near-term run-out of Quest and QX56 and eventual displacement of the Titan (the future of the Titan-based Armada SUV seems uncertain) the LCVs will take over the truck side of Canton’s production line – assembly of the Altima sedan will remain, Krueger said.

He said the first phase of production begins in early 2010, with the launch of the new LCVs coming in three separate phases, although “the exact timing is still to be finalized,” he said.

Equally intriguing is the potential for Canton to become an LCV export site, as the extended weakness of the dollar has the U.S. emerging as a low-cost manufacturing region. Krueger says the initial plan is for Canton to produce LCVs only for North America, however.

“Specifically, at the beginning, (Canton LCV production) will be strictly for North America,” he said.

Krueger will not say what kind of LCV Nissan will unveil at the Detroit show – the current range runs a bewilderingly extensive gamut from compact pickups and delivery vans to cab trucks and small buses – saying only that it will indicate Nissan’s thinking regarding the best starting point for the company’s LCV business. Nissan sources have mentioned the success of Daimler AG’s Sprinter van and its numerous offshoots, however; Nissan’s current Primastar is a similar vehicle.

The company also has formed partnerships with two key suppliers: Cummins Inc. for diesel engines and ZF Friedrichshafen AG for transmissions.

Nissan North America appointed Joe Castelli vice president-light commercial vehicle and fleet. Castelli, based in the U.S., recently arrived from Ford Motor Co., where he had experience in the commercial-vehicle market. Nissan says Castelli will oversee development, sales, marketing and service for the all-new LCV Business Unit.

Photos by Nissan
1 - Primastar could one of initial crop of three light commercial vehicles with which Nissan will attack the North American market.
2 - Nissan NP300 light dump truck

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.