Nissan will build two new all-electric Nissan and Infiniti vehicles at its Canton, Miss., assembly plant, the Japanese automaker announced this morning alongside Gov. Tate Reeves and other state officials. The company plans to invest $500 million to “transform and modernize the facility,” Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta told the crowd in Canton this morning.
“Nissan is making a strong investment in Canton’s future, bringing the latest technology, training and process to create a truly best-in-class EV manufacturing team,” he said.
As part of the plan, Nissan says it will retrain 2,000 workers at its Mississippi plant. The Mississippi Development Authority is teaming up with the automaker to assist in training efforts and to make improvements and upgrades to the plant. The plant currently produces four models: Altima, Frontier, TITAN and TITAN XD.
Gov. Reeves told the crowd that he “could not be more excited” about today’s announcement.
“For the last couple of years, one of the things I’ve said repeatedly is it’s our responsibility as a governor to invest in our people, and the best thing we can do to invest in our people and make sure we are all well-trained, not for the jobs of the last 50 years, but for the jobs of the next 50 years.,” he said.
“When you look at this announcement today, I believe it is so clear that that is exactly what this partnership is doing right here in Canton, Mississippi.”
In 2017, Nissan successfully waged a campaign to kill a unionization attempt at the Canton plant. It employees about 5,000 workers.
Nissan says it plans for electric vehicles to represent 40% of all its U.S. vehicle sales by 2030. The automaker plans to begin production on the new all-electric Nissan and Infiniti EV vehicles in its Canton plant by 2025.