“Consolidating the Murano into the same plant with the Pathfinder lowers the costs of these two popular crossovers by increasing the volume of common parts, especially the shared V-6 engine and continuously variable transmission,” Fiorani said. At the same time, removing Murano production from Canton reduces complexity at that factory, which assembles a mix of body-on-frame trucks, unibody cars and crossovers. Nissan builds the Altima, Murano, Frontier and Titan pickups, and NV cargo and passenger vans in Mississippi.
One supplier who asked not to be identified said Nissan delayed the shift of Altimas from Tennessee to Mississippi because Nissan needs Altima production there for a while.
Smyrna is winding down the current-generation Rogue, leaving a lull in production volumes until the next Rogue arrives. First-quarter Rogue sales were down 36 percent from a year ago.
“Nissan has decided Rogue volume in Smyrna has to reduce, so that means Altima will not shift 100 percent to…
