Nissan To Build Next Generation Rogue in the US

The future generation of Nissan Rogue, the carmaker’s mid-size crossover, will be produced at the Smyrna, Tennessee plant in 2013, shifting production from Nissan's plant in Kyushu, Japan. The announcement was recently made by the Nissan Americas chief Carlos Tavares, who also stated that his company will return to the North American International Auto Show in 2012 for the first time since 2008.

"We plan to be more visible with our marketing and PR efforts in the coming year. We at Nissan are quite bullish about our future and we've got a strong midterm plan to execute on," Tavares told the Society of Automotive Analysts' annual meeting, explaining the thinking behind Nissan’s decision to return to the show.

According to a recent Detroit News article, the 2013 shift in production for the Rogue could result in 100,000 such crossovers being built on American soil. The main driving force behind the change is the Japanese yen’s recent strength against the dollar, which is making exports to the US more expensive.

Tavares also predicts that the US car market will grow this year by 12 percent to about 13 million vehicles sold. The carmaker expects to sell 4.1 million vehicles during the 2010 fiscal year, which ends in March 2011, amounting to a total global market share of 5.8 percent. This would be a significant improvement over 2009's performance of 3.5 million vehicles and 5.5 percent market share.

Nissan received a $1.4 billion loan from the Energy Department to build the Tennessee plant on the condition that it builds 150,000 Nissan Leafs and another 200,000 battery packs each year by 2013.