Nissan is to use production capacity in Japan to make its Qashqai SUV for the North American market. The move improves capacity utilisation in Japan and takes advantage of the weaker yen.

Nissan has already said it will build the Rogue SUV for the North American market at the Fukuoka plant from “around next spring” with annual volume of around 100,000 units.

Nissan’s Fukuoka Prefecture facility will also build around 100,000 Qashqai SUVs a year starting in spring 2017, with the vehicles to be shipped to the US and Canada. The hugely successful Qashqai is currently produced in the UK and sells about 300,000 units a year, mainly in Europe.

The two steps will help push up Nissan’s domestic output to around 1.1m.