Nissan Boosting Chinese Presence With $900 Million Investment

With many Western car markets seeing fairly stagnant car sales, the eyes of the automotive world are shifting to Asia to find opportunities. To take advantage of rapidly-growing car sales in China, Nissan is investing $900 million in a new assembly plant so it can manufacture more cars there.

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Nissan partnered with Dongfeng Motor Group Co Ltd as a joint venture in China, with the native company navigating local regulations. Reuters reports that the two automakers are waiting to hear back from the Chinese government for permission to build a joint facility in Hubei province. The reports estimate that the plant could have a production capacity of 200,000 to 300,000 vehicles annually.

For the past 20 years, Volkswagen AG and General Motors have been the dominant brands in China. Nissan sells more than 1 million vehicles there but has a new goal closer to 4 million to compete with VW and GM. Hopefully, this partnership smooths over the roadblocks many foreign companies face in China. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance won the global sales crown in 2017, and this move will grow sales and hopefully help the group keep it for 2018 and beyond.

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News sources believe that the plant will focus on electric vehicles and gasoline cars from its China-only Venucia brand and the Nissan brand. At this time, there does not seem to be any indication of how many cars (if any) built in China would be for sale outside of the country.

News Sources: Reuters and Nasdaq