Back in the dark days of the 2008 financial crisis, Rahm Emmanuel, then an advisor to Barack Obama, famously said “[n]ever allow a good crisis go to waste.” Tariffs are a crisis for automakers, but one in which Nissan sees an upside.
“We have an opportunity, I think, with this tariff thing,” says Vinay Shahani, Nissan USA’s head of sales and marketing, in an interview with Motor1 at the New York Auto Show. “We’re very fortunate to have a robust industrial footprint in the United States, at Smyrna [Tennessee]… and in Canton, Mississippi, and I think the opportunity to really push and really leverage some of these models that we build in the United States.”
Nissan has built cars at Smyrna since 1983 and currently produces the Rogue—its best seller—Pathfinder, Murano, and Infiniti QX60. At Canton, it builds the Frontier and Altima. Nissan makes plenty of popular, affordable models like the Sentra, Versa, and Kicks in Mexico, and imports things like the Armada and Z from Japan. But, the cars it makes in the US represent a good chunk of its total sales here.
Shahani says that Nissan is shifting more Rogue production from Japan to the US to keep Smyrna humming along. And soon, Nissan will have a new-generation Rogue with a long-awaited hybrid powertrain, including a plug-in variant.
Nissan’s had a tumultuous couple months, with on-off merger talks with Honda that went nowhere, and its old CEO replaced amidst the failed merger and rough earnings. But it is not all bad news. New boss Ivan Espinosa has injected some vigor into the company, and in the US, its sales are strong. Through April 1, it’s up 5.7% year-over-year, and its broad range of affordable models is enjoying a larger move towards cheaper cars in America.
Photo by: Jeff Perez / Motor1
“Just look at the positioning of Kicks,” says Ponz Pandikuthira, Nissan USA’s head of product planning. “Completely different car from the previous generation Kicks, same price position, starting at $21-something, going up to $28,000. Sentra, end of life cycle, but still selling at a top-notch rate, and you’re going to see a new Sentra this coming year.”
Cars were already expensive before tariffs, and most indications point to prices rising further still over the coming months. Pandikuthira says that it’s critical Nissan makes big improvements with new generations of its affordable models, without big price increases. It’s something that’s already working out well. “We’ve hit that sweet spot as an accessible brand,” he says.
“There’s a big opportunity in the marketplace for these vehicles under $30,000,” Shahani adds. “We have six cars that start under $30,000.”
Both Pandikuthira and Shahani think Nissan’s products are strong right now, and they emphasize the value of having a lineup that includes everything in between a sub-$20,000 Versa to an $80,000-plus Armada—except for a new Xterra and GT-R they both want badly. But, they acknowledge that they haven’t done a good enough job marketing this fact, and boosting some of the strong models already in the lineup, “diamonds in the rough,” as Shahani terms them.
“I think over time, we lost a little bit of our mojo,” Shahani says. “What attracted me to the brand the first time that I worked here, we were an underdog, cool, irreverent, fun Japanese brand. And I think we’re getting back to our roots now.”
Over the next year or so, we’ll see a lot from Nissan. There’s the aforementioned Rogue and Sentra, lots of hybrid models, and the Leaf being reborn as a compact EV crossover. And in the longer term, both Pandikuthira and Shahani are pushing hard for a new Xterra.
It’s not an easy road ahead, but they may be able to take good advantage of this strange moment. And don’t forget there’s a sort of historical precedent here—when the 1973 fuel crisis hit, it was Nissan (then Datsun) along with other Japanese automakers that took excellent advantage of a trend towards more fuel efficient cars, with American automakers forced to play catch-up. If the movement towards affordable cars gets bigger, Nissan’s not in a bad place right now.
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