As Japanese automakers struggle to cope with the strengthening yen that's been squeezing profit margins, Nissan has announced to substantially increase the production volume of vehicles that are built and sold for the North American market.
Via the Detroit Free Press, Nissan Americas Senior Vice President of R&D Carla Baila admitted, "We need to mitigate the effect of the yen and increase capacity across North America." That said, the mid-term goal is to have 85 percent of all Nissan and Infiniti products sold in the United States to be produced in North America by 2015 -- this project translates to an 18 percent increase over the current 67 percent.
The extra shift of attention towards the North American market is also a part of a larger corporate goal to achieve 8 percent in total global market share by 2016 as well as a sustained 8 percent corporate operating profit.
Well positioned, Nissan is currently the market leader in Mexico with a 25 percent share. As of the end of the 2011 fiscal year, U.S. market share rose to a record 8.2 percent. In developing markets like Brazil, Nissan's share of the market has risen another quarter over the year before.
For the years ahead, Nissan will invest another $5.2 billion into the North and South American continents, which will create 9,000 jobs and boost American production capacity by 425,00 vehicles, 250,000 engines, and 200,000 lithium-ion battery packs.
I prudent decision for Nissan, we expect the execs at Toyota and Honda to be formulating similar operations for the future as well.
