Tsunami, earthquake not impacting Nissan Americas

In a statement released today, Nissan Americas said it is currently studying the potential for its Decherd, Tenn., engine plant to supply VQ V-6 engines to Japan to replace lost production from the Iwaki engine plant. Its manufacturing in Tennessee will follow a normal production schedule through April 1. It's working to limit any potential supply shortages. “Our supply chain teams in Japan and America continue to work relentlessly to resolve the bottlenecks as they appear, so that our manufacturing operations have an uninterrupted activity to support market needs,” said Carlos Tavares, chairman, Nissan Americas.

The Japanese plants that make the Nissan Leaf and its batteries reopened on Thursday, March 24, but it's not known what their capacities will be. The ability to sustain production will depend to a large degree on the frequency of rolling blackouts due to electricity shortages.

Nissan Americas appears to be well positioned in terms of supply. It released numbers that showed Nissan has more than 260,000 units in dealer stock, at port or in transit from Japan while Infiniti brand is operating with more than 35,000 units of availability. Both numbers are better than at the same point last year. For that reason, Nissan Americas expects no delays in delivering customer product through at least May.