Nissan cuts Smyrna, Tenn. plant costs

[rickaren]

Nissan trims EV plant price tag, federal loan

Posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 2:33 PM EST.(Employee News)

Nissan North America Inc. has reduced the amount it intends to invest in a new U.S. electric-vehicle assembly line and battery plant by about $200 million, the Automotive News reported.

A spokeswoman for the company said the change is the result of improved efficiencies the company made to its original construction plan, the trade paper said. Spokeswoman Katherine Zachary said the original plan to produce 200,000 lithium ion batteries and 150,000 complete electric vehicles annually is still on target, the Automotive News said.

Nissan originally estimated the cost of the Smyrna, Tenn., project at $2 billion and had applied for $1.6 billion in low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Energy to pay for 80 percent of the project, the paper said. But the DOE loan was approved last week for $1.44 billion. Zachary said the DOE loan still represents 80 percent of the project’s cost, which puts the total price tag at about $1.8 billion, the story said. (Automotive News)