Nissan North America’s powertrain assembly plant in Decherd, Tennessee has marked 10 years of production.
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Since starting output on 16 May, 1997, the facility has grown to become the largest engine plant in Nissan’s global production network in which 1,200 employees build four-, six- and eight-cylinder engines for all Nissan and Infiniti vehicles built in the US.
A small number of truck engines are also exported to Nissan’s manufacturing plant in Barcelona, Spain.
Decherd can produce 950,000 engines and 1.1m crankshaft forgings annually. From spring 2008, the plant will add cylinder block castings.
So far, NNA-Decherd has built more than 3.8m engines. The 1.2m-square-foot plant is located on 998 acres in Decherd and represents a capital investment of approximately $US683m.
Plans to build the original plant were announced on 18 January, 1991. Construction on the $30m, 100,000-square-foot plant began in March 1995.
Before the engine plant even opened for business, Nissan officials announced the facility would be expanded to add transaxle production. In February 1995, the company announced an $80m investment to add 137,000 square feet to the original facility.
Production began with 200 employees on 16 May. The plant’s first product was a 2.4-litre, four-cylinder engine for the Nissan Altima, which was – and still is – assembled at the vehicle assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, about 90 miles northwest of Decherd. Transaxle production followed in April 1998.
On 20 July 2000, the plant was expanded again to add 500,000 square feet to introduce machining and assembly for the production of V6 and V8 engines. The steady course of growth continued with a $48m investment to add forging operations. Production volumes in Decherd increased with the addition of Nissan’s second US vehicle assembly plant, in Canton, Mississippi, in May 2003.
At the ceremony to mark the start of crankshaft forging production on 6 September, 2006, Nissan announced a $34.7m addition to begin cylinder block casting at Decherd. Construction continues on the casting facility, and production will begin in spring 2008.
