Japanese Also Slammed by Truck Slump

By Paul Eisenstein June 10th, 2008

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Nissan Titan

Ford's turnaround plan is in tatters. General Motors must close four more of its plants. And Chrysler's biggest launch of the year, its new Ram pickup, has been all but aborted. Record fuel prices have been devastating Detroit. But the domestic automakers aren't the only ones feeling the pinch.

Asian manufacturers are feeling the pinch as well, and suddenly realizing that their own foray into light trucks now has a serious downside. Toyota, for example, has seen its incentives soar on the heavily promoted Tundra, yet even then, the full-size pickup has suffered a double-digit sales decline in recent months. The automaker has delayed the planned open of its new Tupelo, Mississippi, assembly plant, and scaled back sales expectations for the Highlander, the crossover/SUV that will be built there.

Then there's Nissan, which never quite connected to the U.S. market with its own big truck, the Titan. Overall, the automaker's light-truck lineup, including the Quest minivan and Armada full-size SUV, has suffered a 9.8 percent dip since the beginning of the year, but Titan sales have plunged a painful 44.5 percent.

That's leading the Japanese maker to cut light-truck production at its Canton, Mississippi, assembly line back to one shift - though it will also add a third shift at the plant for the increasingly popular Altima sedan.

Earlier this year, Nissan announced a major realignment of its truck fleet. Instead of building a next-generation Titan on its own, Nissan will team up with Chrysler to develop a version based on the Detroit maker's new Ram. Production of the Infiniti QX56 luxury SUV will be shifted back to Japan, and it is likely that major changes will be made to the Armada program, as well.

Tags: Industry

Posted in: 2008, Infiniti, Pickups, QX56, Titan, Tundra

Nissan Still Committed to the U.S. - Sort Of

By Paul Eisenstein May 17th, 2008

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Nissan still sees the U.S. as a critical part of its future, company officials say, and aren’t backing down on their commitment to the huge market. But like many of its competitors, it’s apparent that the Japanese maker is looking to new and emerging markets for the bulk of its growth over the coming years.

A new, five-year plan sees the opportunity to generate as much as 1 million units of annual sales growth in places like China, India, and Russia, notes analyst Kurt Sanger, of Deutsche Bank.

“The U.S. is very much a part of the…program,” Nissan’s North American finance chief, Dominique Thormann, told the Detroit News in a separate interview. A number of new models are coming to the States, TheCarConnection has learned, including the next version of Nissan's quirky Cube, the current model shown above. Thormann emphasized, however, that a key part of the growth here is expected to be dominated by the new light commercial vehicles the company plans to build at its plant in Canton, Mississippi.

That reflects a significant shift in strategy. Until now, Canton has focused on large trucks, such as the Infiniti QX56 luxury SUV and Nissan Titan pickup. Production of that ute is being shipped back to Japan, while Nissan is is making major changes in its much-ballyhooed pickup program. It will cease production of its own truck and, for the next-generation Titan, shift to a truck based on Chrysler’s Dodge Ram pickup. Nissan will design the exterior, but the U.S. maker will handle production.

As TheCarConnection previously reported, Nissan may be downgrading trucks, but the automaker has made electric vehicles its top priority, as CEO Carlos Ghosn confirmed this past week in Tokyo. The automaker has launched two small but important EV test programs: one in Israel, the other in Denmark. Meanwhile, it is developing an all-new battery car that will begin fleet sales, in the U.S., in 2010. The company’s goal, according to worldwide product planning director Tom Lane, is to put the new EV into retail showrooms starting in 2012.

Tags: Industry

Posted in: 2008, Nissan, Pickups, QX56, Titan

Nissan Cuts -- Detroit Hires.

By Paul Eisenstein February 20th, 2008

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Detroit’s cutting back, Japan’s out hiring. That, it seems, is the conventional wisdom when it comes to the U.S. auto industry. But as is often the case, the conventional wisdom appears to be wrong.

True, there’ve been a wave of cutbacks at Big Three auto plants, spurred by declining sales and revenues, as well as the latest union contract. And, yes, Toyota’s been ramping up production at an assortment of plants, with another assembly line soon to come online. But that’s only part of the story.

Despite strong sales and earnings, Nissan Motor Co. trimmed the body count at its assembly plant in Smyrna, TN by 750 last year. Now comes word, in Wednesday’s Detroit News, that it’s going to cut more than 10 percent of the workforce at its Nissan Design America operations, through voluntary attrition. That might come as a surprise, considering NDA has been taking on an increased role in Nissan’s global product development process, and has been responsible for such products as the Nissan 350Z sports car, and Armada and Infiniti QX56 full-size SUVs.

But, “the process,” NDA Vice President Bruce Campbell told the paper, “from the idea to the showroom is becoming shorter,” and less manpower intensive. Translation: fewer people, more products in a shorter time. Don’t be surprised to see more cuts at Nissan, going forward.

On the other hand, as TheCarConnection.com reported just yesterday, we could see a “hiring blitz” by the Big Three, suggests a new study by the Center for Automotive Research, quoted in the Wednesday Detroit Free Press. Over the next four years, 36,000 hourly and salaried jobs will open up in Michigan alone, says the CAR report.

But not everyone is celebrating. Most of those jobs will open up to replace workers that have accepted buyouts from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. If that sounds like a strange sleight of hand, here’s the rest of the story: the new hires will be working for $14 an hour, or half of what the same jobs were paying previously, thanks to the concessions granted by the United Auto Workers Union, last summer.

Tags: Industry

Posted in: 2008, Infiniti, QX56