Nissan Mexico hatch & sedan planned for US in '07

[NarendZORCE]

Taken from: http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=102840


The Nissan Sport Concept will inspire a hatchback for the U.S. market.

Nissan will bring two cars from Mexico; hatchback and sedan to come by early '07

KATHY JACKSON | Automotive News
Posted Date: 7/25/05

LOS ANGELES -- Two small Nissans for the United States will be built in Mexico.

A three-door hatchback arrives next summer and a sedan comes in early 2007, sources say.

Nissan Motor Co. had said it will add two small cars to the U.S. lineup to compete with Scion, Toyota Motor Corp.'s youth brand. The boxy Nissan Cube and the Tiida sedan, both sold in Japan, were considered prime candidates but were rejected.

"The Cube was canned because it's too small," one source says. "The Tiida is too Japanese for this market."

The hatchback is based on the Sport Concept, shown at the 2005 New York International Auto Show in March.

The sources say the hatchback and the sedan will be built at Nissan's plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

The sedan will account for 60 percent of the total. The plant also will build some units for Mexico, Europe, Canada, and Central and South America.

A redesigned Sentra is scheduled to go on sale in the United States in the summer of 2006.

One source says there is talk of expanding the Aguascalientes plant.

Nissan spokesman Kyle Bazemore says: "We said that we would be bringing a B-segment car to the United States" smaller than the Sentra. "But we are not yet ready to say where it will be built."