Nissan has abandoned a $500 million plan to build all-electric vehicles at its Canton, Mississippi assembly plant and will keep the factory focused on gasoline and hybrid vehicles, according to a report on the company’s product plans. [1]
The change marks a sharp reversal from 2021, when Nissan said under its Ambition 2030 strategy that it would retool Canton to build EVs and batteries as part of a push to sell 200,000 EVs in the US by 2028. [1]
Weak US EV sales and the loss of the federal $7,500 EV tax credit helped push Nissan to cancel the plan, the report said. Nissan also cancelled the Ariya electric crossover and two electric sedans in the US last year. [1]
Nissan now makes only one EV in the US, the Ariya, at three plants including Canton, the report said. Other US automakers, including Ford and GM, have also cancelled or scaled back EV programs as they put more weight on hybrid and gasoline models. [1]
The Canton plant, a 4.7 million-square-foot factory, will next produce a new body-on-frame Xterra by 2028, followed by the three-row Frontier and at least three other models on the same platform, according to the report. [1]