Nissan Motor Corporation has announced that that it will rev up operations in Argentina to become an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) with the domestic production of an all-new pick-up

Argentina will become a key component of Nissan´s regional strategy to gradually position itself among the Top 3 brands in Latin America, according to the automaker. With a presence spanning 38 countries, Nissan stated its commitment to becoming a core member of the Argentinean automotive industry, a market expected to reach 1million in sales in the mid-term.

With an investment of US$600 million, the company said it will build pickup trucks in Renault's industrial complex in Córdoba, on a dedicated pickup assembly line. Along with Nissan´s new truck, the new line also will produce a 1-ton pickup truck for Renault and a new pickup for Mercedes, stemming from a Daimler-Renault-Nissan Alliance cooperation agreement. The pickups will share some common architecture but will have markedly different brand design and attributes, distinctive of each brand.

The new assembly line will be capable of producing 70,000 pick-ups per year. This production line, is expected generate approximately 1,000 direct jobs, and another 2,000 indirect ones. The first vehicle to be assembled will be the all-new NP300 Frontier by 2018. With this step, Argentina joins a network of global production sites for the NP300 Frontier that includes plants in Thailand, Mexico, and soon Spain, according to the automaker.