Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 8:44 pm:

quote:

The Japanese automaker says it will enter the U.S. market with three vehicles starting in the first half of 2010, all built at its plant in Canton, Miss.

"We will invest more than $118 million in creating that infrastructure and on top of that we'll obviously be investing in the vehicles themselves," said Andy Palmer, Nissan's corporate vice president, at a Monday news conference in Detroit. "This allows us to expand our capabilities using the existing workforce and capitalizes on Canton's strengths."

Nissan would not say what models it would build, but the company says they could run from pickup trucks to buses. Palmer said the vehicles will be built around U.S. needs.

"The powertrains and the vehicles are coming from the United States. They're being developed in Detroit, in Farmington Hills," Palmer said. "They're being sourced from the United States, built in the United States, sold in the United States for American customers."

Palmer said Ford, GM and Dodge commercial vehicles on the market today are "not spring chickens" and that Nissan's strategy is to "serve the customer today."