Nissan plans $500M project to build 2 new EVs at Miss. plant

CANTON, Miss. — Nissan Motor Co. will begin U.S. production of two new electric vehicles starting in 2025 as the EV pioneer seeks to reclaim relevancy in the now-burgeoning segment.

As part of the expansion, Nissan said Thursday that it will invest $500 million to transform its Canton, Miss., assembly plant into a "center for EV manufacturing and technology." The investment will include the addition of battery pack assembly operations in Canton, Nissan executives said Thursday.

The sprawling 4.7 million-square-foot factory brought automotive production to Mississippi when it opened nearly two decades ago.

The new EVs — one a Nissan model and the other an Infiniti — have a sedan-like profile with a sloping roofline and new headlight and taillight designs. Product details were not revealed.

The models will be assembled on a new line at the Canton factory, which has a 410,000-vehicle annual production capacity and builds the Altima midsize sedan and the Frontier and Titan pickups.

But Nissan's plan to bring electric sedans to the U.S. is a head-scratcher for some retailers.

"I'll be honest, I'm shocked," said a Nissan dealer, who requested that he not be identified. "Why in the world would Nissan be spending their limited R&D dollars developing sedans, when their most important market is craving SUVs?"

The Canton project is the first of several Nissan investments in EV and battery production in the U.S. over the next five years.

“We’re just getting started,” Nissan Americas Chairperson Jeremie Papin said at an event at the factory Thursday.

The Japanese automaker is making an $18 billion global betaking an $18 billion global bet on electrification over the next five years that includes developing solid-state batteries and delivering 15 battery-electric models by 2030.

Consumers are beginning to embrace electrification in key markets around the world, including the U.S., Nissan Motor Co. COO Ashwani Gupta said during the presentation.

“Nissan is prepared to capitalize on this interest,” Gupta said. “We will leverage our strong DNA and decades of of real-world EV experience.”

In its critical U.S. market, where EVs are viewed with greater skepticism, Nissan expects battery-only vehicles to account for 40 percent of its U.S. sales by 2030.

That's ambitious, given the automaker's sole electric product — the Leaf — accounted for a mere 1.5 percent of Nissan Group's U.S. sales last year.

Nissan's investment plans for new EV production in the U.S., so far, have been relatively modest.

Ford and General Motors have announced multibillion-dollar investments in domestic vehicle assembly and battery plants.

Toyota is investing $3.4 billion in the U.S. over the next nine years to develop and localize automotive battery production.

While it is still early in the EV revolution, Nissan is playing catch-up in announcing its strategy and scope of EV investment in the U.S., said Jeff Schuster, president of global forecasting at LMC Automotive.

"The next wave of EVs will shape how competitive Nissan will be in this space," Schuster said.

Long before EVs were cool, Nissan delivered the first mass-market model when it launched the Leaf in 2010.

Since then, the automaker has lost its lead as traditional and upstart competitors brought flashier and longer-range BEVs to market.

Now, more than a decade later, Nissan is gearing up for a second act as it enters the white-hot electric crossover market.

The Rogue-sized Ariya EV will arrive at U.S. dealerships this fall, going up against the Volkswagen ID4, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Tesla Model Y.

While the Nissan crossover is initially being bult in Nissan’s Tochigi, Japan plant, Papin left the door open for U.S. production as domestic demand for the Ariya grows.p