In light of America’s current sedan market and low potential for profits, Nissan is abandoning its plans to build two electric sedans here — and will build an SUV instead.
This week, as it rolled out new electric and plug-in hybrid concepts at the Shanghai Auto Show, Nissan scrapped its ambitions to manufacture sedans in the United States (ostensibly EV replacements for the Maxima and Altima). Instead, the automaker will build an as-yet-unnamed SUV at its Canton, Mississippi plant, according to reporting by Automotive News.
“Nissan is committed to delivering the right product, at the right time, in the right place, and at the right price,” the company said in a statement. Nissan’s chairman for the Americas Christian Meunier acknowledged the market landscape doesn’t make sense for the brand to bring two electric sedans to the market — at least not if it wants to profit on those vehicles. The sedan market, on the whole, has shrunk over the years as players in the U.S. market pivot toward larger, more expensive and more profitable SUVs. The cost to develop these vehicles, the company contends, would be too high to sell it at a price that makes sense for the mainstream brand.
The company is still going to sell electric sedans, including those co-developed with Chinese automaker Dongfeng, but not for the North American customer.
So, the company will reportedly pivot toward that SUV instead. AN notes the vehicle, codenamed PZ1K, is the same boxy, Xterra-like SUV it showed off in Japan last month, alongside the new Leaf, Rogue and Pathfinder. This new all-electric, U.S.-built SUV will supposedly start production in January 2028.
With this recent shift, we’re also supposed to get an electric Infiniti SUV that will also come from the Canton plant, though it appears from a Nissan memo that such a vehicle (codenamed PZ1J) won’t arrive until that May 2028, some four months behind the Nissan EV.
Another electric SUV, the one that will effectively replace the company’s earlier planned sedans, is a complete mystery at this point. There’s no readily available information on when it will go into production, what it will be called or what price point Nissan’s targeting with that model.
In light of Nissan’s recent troubles and new CEO Ivan Espinosa taking over this month, the automaker seems to be taking some decisive actions to improve its outlook moving forward. However, there’s still quite a bit of work to do on that front, as Nissan recorded a 700 billion to 750 billion yen ($4.9-5.3 billion) loss for this past fiscal year, a record amount. Right now, Japan’s third-largest automaker (behind Toyota and Honda) is closing some plants, reducing manufacturing capacity and cutting jobs to stem those massive losses so it can bring these new models to market in the next 2-3 years.
