Nissan to consolidate plant operations in U.S. and Thailand, how will PH be affected?
It’s been quite the past few months for the automotive brand Nissan, at the tail end of last year they were subject to rumors of financial trouble and ended up entering talks to merge with Honda and even Mitsubishi.
It has come to light in the past week that the talks for this mega merger hit some roadblocks and eventually died out, officially announced by both brands. This puts Nissan once again under pressure, and some of the measures taken by the brand have been announced, mainly centering on plant operation consolidation in some key markets like the U.S. and Thailand.
Nissan to consolidate plant operations
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida detailed his plans to investors including the scaling down of plant operations in the United States America and more importantly, Thailand.
In his plan, the Thailand plant scale-down will take effect first on April 1, 2025, followed by a series of other scale-down measures that will reach the October – December period of this year.
The Thailand plant consolidation could affect the PH market, given that the top 2 sellers of Nissan PH are the Navara and Terra, not to mention the Kicks e-Power is also a Thailand-made unit. In light of this announcement we reached out to Nissan PH for a statement and this is what we got:
“As part of Nissan’s global turnaround measures and ongoing business transformation in ASEAN and Thailand, Nissan is consolidating part of vehicle production in Thailand’s Plant #1 to Plant #2 and upgrading the lines starting from Q1 FY2025. This effort aims to optimize fixed costs as well as prepare for future model localization in Thailand. Plant line #1 will be closed for vehicle assembly and the facility will be used for body and press shops and operations logistics. Thailand will remain a key market for Nissan in Southeast Asia, and the company continues its commitment to grow its business and brand in ASEAN and Thailand markets.”
This statement clarifies that the plant operations will merely be consolidated and scaled down but not cease operations, the brand continues to reaffirm its commitment to growing in the ASEAN region.
Furthermore, Nissan is globally still setting its sights on launching improved new energy vehicles such as better EVs and improved mileage and fuel savings for the next generation e-Power powertrains.
