UPDATE, 14 February 2025: Nissan has issued a statement to clarify CEO Makoto Uchida’s announcement that Nissan’s Thailand assembly plant will cease operations. Read here.
Following the collapse of the merger with Honda, Nissan is taking drastic measures for its survival. With that, several assembly lines will be shut down in a bid to—at the very least—lessen operating expenses.
One of the plants affected is a big one, especially for the Southeast Asian market. Makoto Uchida, CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation, has announced that the Thai assembly plant operations will cease by April 1, 2025.
It’s a major blow to ASEAN sales channels, for sure, as the majority of mass-market Nissan products sold in the region come from Thailand. Locally, we source the Almera and the Kicks from there, along with the brand’s best-selling truck-based vehicles, the Navara and the Terra.
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So, what happens next? The bigger question is, where could Nissan Philippines source its mainstream models? It’s still unknown as it was not discussed during the company’s financial report.
Starting with the Almera, it’s possible to get Malaysian-built units as it’s the only other ASEAN country that builds the subcompact sedan. As for the Kicks, there are two options. The first is to source it from China via Nissan’s partnership with Dongfeng. The other is to import it from Taiwan. However, it’s worth pointing out that neither of the versions sold there comes with e-Power technology.
As for the Navara and the Terra, the solution might come from China. Again, thanks to Nissan’s ties with Dongfeng, production of these ladder-frame vehicles might be somewhat unaffected, but that’s if things fall into place.
That said, the Chinese versions of the Navara and the Terra are dramatically different from the ones sitting in Philippine showrooms at the moment. For starters, the Terra is badged as the Dongfeng-Nissan Paladin. Also, diesel engines are not offered there, but adjustments might be made should the need arise.
Then there’s the matter of the next-generation Navara. There’s still a bit of a wait before it’s revealed, well beyond the April 1 shutdown. But given that the Navara and the current Mitsubishi Triton will share the same platform, there’s a good chance that both pickups will roll off the same assembly line. Meanwhile, the fate of the new-generation Terra is still up in the air given that it failed to meet sales targets in other parts of the world.
