Nissan Motor Co Ltd will produce the electric motor for its all-electric Nissan Leaf car at its powertrain plant in Decherd, Tennessee, starting in early 2013, the company said on Wednesday.
Nissan will add a new assembly line to make room for the added output, which will create up to 90 new jobs, the company said. The Decherd plant already makes engines for all Nissan and Infiniti vehicles made in the United States.
Loans from the U.S. Department of Energy helped pay for the additions to the plant. When the new assembly line is completed, the plant will have the capacity to make up to 150,000 electric motors annually for the Nissan Leaf, which will be built at Nissan’s assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee in 2012.
This week, Nissan said it would begin selling its Leaf in the southeastern United States and Illinois by the end of the month.
