Dongfeng Motor Invests USD 800m for New Plant in China

Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. (DFL), Nissan's joint venture in China, announced it will build an all-new manufacturing facility in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China with an investment of up to USD $800 million.

The Dalian plant, scheduled to begin manufacturing NISSAN-branded passenger vehicles, will have an initial annual production capacity of 150,000 units by 2014, and will expand up to 300,000 units.

China, the world’s largest auto market, is central to Power 88 Nissan’s plan to raise global market share and profit margins to 8 percent by fiscal 2016.

"China is our largest market today and will continue to be one of Nissan's most important engines of growth," said Hiroto Saikawa, Executive Vice President of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., at the groundbreaking ceremony. "Together with the Huadu plant in the south and the Xiangyang and Zhengzhou plants in central China, the Dalian plant in the northeast will be an important addition to our local supply base to realize our sales target of 2 million units in China by 2015. The Dalian plant reconfirms Nissan's commitment to China and our willingness to continue delivering high-quality products to our Chinese customers nationwide."

DFL also signed a contract to deliver 1,000 VENUCIA-branded electric vehicles (EVs) to the pilot program conducted by Dalian Municipal Government by 2014. DFL and the City of Dalian, as a pilot city for alternative-energy vehicles, will collaborate to promote EVs and the infrastructure necessary to support them.

The VENUCIA electric car will share many components from Nissan LEAF, but will be an entirely new “Chinese” vehicle selling under the new low-priced VENUCIA brand that Japanese automaker is creating for the world’s largest auto market.