Nissan Motor Co. plans to spend $1 billion to expand its plant in Decherd, TN, which produces four-cylinder engines for the Altima sedan. Nissan will add 500,000 square feet to the plant in Decherd, a rural community 80 miles southeast of Nashville, for production of six-cylinder and eight-cylinder engines. The expansion is intended to increase production at Nissan’s assembly plant in Smyrna, near Nashville, where the company produces the Altima sedan, the Xterra sport/utility vehicle, and the Frontier pickup.
Nissan plans to produce more engines and vehicles locally to reduce costs and the impact of currency fluctuations, and to get vehicles to North American consumers faster. Construction is set to begin in fall 2000, and production of engines will begin in June 2002. At the Symrna plant, production will increase from 380,000 vehicles to 440,000 in the fiscal year beginning in October. Production could reach 500,000 vehicles in the following years.
Nissan plans to invest $1 billion over the next four years for the expansion. The expansion plan includes adding 2,000 more employees. Nissan now employs 5,400 workers at Smyrna and 300 at the Decherd plant.