Nissan Motor Co might slow a planned ramp-up of electric vehicles (EVs) made in the US after halting output at a joint venture in Mexico, signaling unease about energy and trade policies under US President Donald Trump’s second administration.
The start date and production levels for battery-powered cars to be manufactured at a plant in Canton, Mississippi, would depend in large part on whether Trump and the Republican US Congress follow through on vows to scrap a US$7,500 tax credit and other incentives for EV buyers and makers, Nissan chief planning officer for operations in the Americas Ponz Pandikuthira said.
“If they pull back on the US$7,500 credit, we know the rate of adoption is going to slow,” Pandikuthira said in an interview. “We certainly don’t want to be in a position of building models there’s no demand for.”
Photo: Bloomberg
The carmaker previously said it plans to produce four all-new EVs at the Mississippi factory starting in 2028, but Pandikuthira said Nissan would be ready for production of those vehicles as soon as 2027. However, it might slow-walk the EV start-up and limit volumes in favor of boosting output of increasingly popular gas-electric hybrids, including plug-in models, to be built at its plant in Smyrna, Tennessee.
“We’re staying closely tuned to what happens with regulations,” Pandikuthira said. “We can decide which ones to ramp up and which ones to slow down.”
Nissan is to cancel two Infiniti cars, the gas-powered QX50 and QX55 compact crossovers, as of December in an effort to revamp its ailing premium brand, the carmaker said. They are the only Nissan vehicles made at the Mexican plant it co-owns with Mercedes-Benz Group AG.
The decision was based on low demand for the two older models, Pandikuthira said, adding that Nissan has no plans to cut or shift output at its other facilities in Mexico that make vehicles such as the Kicks subcompact and Sentra compact sedan.
The end of Infiniti’s production in the country follows Trump’s threats to impose a 25 percent tariff hike on Mexico and Canada that could damage sales of vehicles they export to the US.
Nissan is planning as many as 2,000 job cuts in the US this year, a local Japanese media report said on Saturday.
By closing production lines at its plants in Tennessee and Mississippi, it aims to reduce US output by about 25 percent, the report said.
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