Nissan, Infiniti to make two new EVs in $A700m factory upgrade

Japanese carmaker Nissan announced on Friday it will make two all-new electric vehicles under both the Nissan badge and that of its luxury brand Infiniti at its Canton Vehicle Assembly Plant in Mississippi, where it currently makes three utes and the Altima sedan.

A $US500 million ($A700 million) upgrade for its Canton facility will see 2,000 employees retrained in readiness for the era of electrification as the carmaker works towards 15 all-electric models by 2030 under its $US18 billion ($A25 billion) Nissan Ambition 2030 plan.

Nissan currently builds the Altima sedan, as well as the Frontier utility truck (known as a pickup in the US and ute in Australia), and two Titan ute models at the Canton car factory, employing 5,000 staff.

The carmaker did not specify what the two new models will be, but images shared hint at new electric crossover models.

An all-electric Nissan ute concept teased in November doesn’t look to be one of the new EV models going from the images shared by Nissan (see above and below).

Speaking on the new announcement, COO for Nissan Ashwani Gupta said, “Today’s announcement is the first of several new investments that will drive the EV revolution in the United States.”

“Nissan making a strong investment in Canton’s future, bringing the latest technology, training and process to create a truly best-in-class EV manufacturing team.”

With a target to reach 40% EVs by 2030, Nissan’s Canton upgrade will play an important role. The carmaker already makes the Nissan Leaf at its Smyrna, Tennessee factory with 14,239 sales in 2021 – the fifth best year of the now twelve-year-old vehicle which has been around since the early days of the electric vehicle market.