Nissan Motor Co. expanded its production footprint in China when a Nissan Qashqai compact crossover this week rolled out of a renovated assembly plant in Changzhou.
The factory, previously run by Dongfeng Motor Group, Nissan’s joint venture partner, has become Dongfeng-Nissan’s first production site in east China, and the fifth across the country.
The renovated plant can produce up to 120,000 vehicles a year.
Aside from Changzhou, Dongfeng-Nissan assembles vehicles under the Nissan brand in four other cities: north China’s Zhengzhou, Northeast China’s Dalian, central China’s Xiangyang and South China’s Guangzhou.
Nissan’s China sales grew for the second straight month in October, rising 5 percent to 146,028, according to Nissan’s China office.
Due to a severe contraction in the first quarter, when the virus outbreak ravaged China, the Japanese brand’s total deliveries through October dropped 8 percent to 1.13 million.