Car manufacturer Nissan plans to spend more than 1 billion dollars on making a number of its factories worldwide more sustainable.
The money will be used to integrate new technologies in which production locations must become more efficient and less polluting. The factories are also being made suitable for the production of electric cars.
As part of the Intelligent Factory Initiative, Nissan has invested hundreds of millions in recent years to install state-of-the-art equipment at the Tochigi plant north of Tokyo. That equipment was unveiled Friday.
Other plants in Japan and the United States will soon follow, Nissan driver Hideyuki Sakamoto said in an interview. Nissan will take seven years to make the factories more sustainable. According to the director, the aim is to have reduced CO2 emissions by 41 percent by 2030 compared to 2019.
Nissan first announced in 2019 that it would begin installing advanced technologies and equipment at the Tochigi plant. The site produces approximately 250,000 vehicles annually, including several Infiniti brand models. The revamped Nissan plant in Tochigi serves as a blueprint for the group’s other factories.
Nissan will also start production of the electric Ariya in Tochigi this fiscal year. The electric crossover is one of 12 new models that Nissan plans to launch as part of the automaker’s restructuring plan. However, according to market analysts, much depends on the performance of the Ariya for Nissan as it looks to the future.