Nissan Finds Ways To “Live” With The Yen

By Logan Utsman on Saturday, September 15th, 2012

The Japanese Yen, to put it simply, is strong. A financial ”crisis” that occurred in 2008 has caused the currency’s value to sky-rocket and numerous auto manufactures are scrambling to find ways around it. While some are putting investments into overseas production to take some weight off domestic building, Nissan is looking to maintain a decent capacity inside their home turf. By adopting some strategic moves, the automaker might just be able to achieve their pledge to make 1 million vehicles a year domestically.

Given that moving completely out of Japan is far too heavy of a burden for a large company such as Nissan, the brand is planning to restructure their internal production. One way for Nissan to amp up efficiency is to shuffle output from traditional “shrongholds”. Production of the Note hatchback will move further south to the Kyushu assembly plant. According to Toshiyuki Shiga, Nissan’s Chief Operating Officer, the move will contribute to either maintaining or increasing production volumes. Considering the plant’s close proximity to neighboring countries such as China and Thailand, Nissan can better access less-expensive imported parts. A recent partnership with Mitsubishi for the Proudia and Dignity models should also alleviate the hurt caused by the Yen.

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