The global launch of Nissan’s light duty truck continues after launch in Europe and Japan

Nissan today announced the Nissan Cabstar global light duty truck, known as Atlas in Japan, will be introduced in Mexico and Taiwan. The announcement follows the global debut in Europe in September 2006 and Japan, in June 2007.

Due to arrive in August, the Nissan Cabstar will be the first light duty truck from Nissan to be introduced in Mexico. In Taiwan, the next generation Cabstar will be introduced by November 2007, to spearhead Yulon-Nissan’s bid to establish a stronger position in the Taiwanese commercial light duty truck segment.

The Nissan Cabstar will be built at the Yulon Motor plant in SanYi for both domestic market and export to Mexico. Production of the Cabstar will start in November 2007 for the Taiwanese market.

For Mexico, the Nissan Cabstar will initially be sourced from Nissan’s light duty truck plant in Avila (Spain) before production will shift to Taiwan in December. Initial production at Avila will be limited to 2,200 units bound for Mexico, to ensure a timely launch.

The Avila factory has been established as the “mother plant” for the Nissan Cabstar. The engineers at the plant have developed a global standard for the Cabstar production process which is then duplicated by other production sites worldwide. The “Nissan Production Way” ensures that each Cabstar truck built around the world meets with the high quality standards set by Nissan.

The all-new Cabstar is built on Nissan’s new global light duty truck platform. This unique platform will provide the base for Nissan’s next generation medium-heavy vans and light duty trucks.

“The all-new Nissan Cabstar embodies all the core elements of our Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) strategy,” said Andy Palmer, Corporate Vice President of Nissan’s LCV business unit. “In developing the Cabstar, we begun with the needs of the customers and created a reliable and efficient truck with smart solutions that support their busy work-day. The all-new Cabstar offers class leading functionality and manoeuvrability, with low cost of ownership,” added Palmer.

The launch of the all-new Nissan Cabstar in Mexico and Taiwan supports the strategy to expand the Nissan LCV business into new markets with the long-term goal to achieve a leading position in the global LCV market by 2010.