Smyrna sites to manufacture Nissan electric car and battery
business, cars, nissan, smyrna,
Americans who want to drive the first affordable, zero-emission electric car will be driving a Nissan. And by late 2012, many of those vehicles will be produced in Smyrna.
Announced in August 2009, that great news for Rutherford County is expected to produce about 1,300 new jobs at the sprawling Smyrna facility.
“We’re very fortunate because the Nissan Smyrna facility is extremely flexible, and it means that we can produce multiple models on one line,” explains Susan Brennan, vice president of manufacturing for Nissan’s Smyrna and Decherd, Tenn., facilities. “Today, we already produce the Maxima sedan, the Altima sedan, the Altima hybrid and the Altima coupe on a single manufacturing line. Because of our flexibility, we’ll be able to add the electric vehicle to that production line.”
Nissan has dubbed its first electric car, a medium-size hatchback that comfortably seats five adults, the LEAF – an acronym for Leading, Environmentally friendly, Affordable Family car.
“Just as leaves purify the air in nature, so the Nissan LEAF purifies mobility by taking emissions out of the driving experience,” a company statement declares. With a chassis designed specifically for a lithium-ion battery, the LEAF will be capable of traveling about 100 miles between charges, making the vehicle ideal for commuters and around-town drivers.
The Smyrna plant should have the capacity to handle the LEAF’s production without expanding the facility, “depending on the marketplace pull,” Brennan says. However, more good news for Smyrna’s economy is that a new plant will be built to manufacture the battery.
“So there are two different teams and two different activities,” Brennan says. “When we get into full production here, they will turn into one team.”
Nissan received a $1.6 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program for the LEAF project. Federal dollars also are earmarked to establish electric-vehicle charging stations in several selected markets, including Tennessee.
The LEAF will first be constructed in Japan, with the first vehicles scheduled to roll off the line there in late 2010. Nissan will begin accepting reservations for LEAF purchases in spring 2010.
In October 2009, a team from the Smyrna plant traveled to Japan to learn the ins and outs of the battery-production process, and Brennan expects to lead another team to Japan later in 2010 to bone up on the vehicle’s manufacturing.
“We’re really developing and understanding today the skills that will be needed to build an electric vehicle,” she says.
Nissan’s decision in 1980 to build a $760 million plant in Smyrna – and not in the Detroit area – ushered in a new era of automotive production for the Southeast and changed the economic complexion of Rutherford County. Smyrna production began in June 1983, and by October 1984, the plant produced its 100,000th vehicle.
“Not only was Nissan the first automotive manufacturer to locate in Tennessee, but it is now at the forefront of the next generation of automotive manufacturing,” says Holly S. Weber, Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce vice president of economic development. “This is an exciting time for Rutherford County and Tennessee.”
With Tennessee’s growing emphasis on green jobs, Weber adds, the LEAF project puts Rutherford County at the forefront of the sustainability initiative. There’s also opportunity down the road for existing and new suppliers as the LEAF ramps up.
“While we haven’t made sourcing decisions yet, an interesting part of this is that we are learning as we go along,” Brennan says, “and we’re getting smarter every day.”
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
