Nissan is planning to start production of small passenger cars and pickup trucks in Myanmar, adding to its recent expansion in Vietnam, reports indicate. The automaker is looking at building several thousand vehicles annually through a partnership with Tan Chong Motor Holdings, which will construct an assembly plant in the country through an affiliate company.
In July, it was reported that Nissan had given Tan Chong sole and exclusive rights to distribute CBU Nissan vehicles in the country. At present, a sales and service centre has been opened in Yangon, and is selling imported pickups and large commercial vans.
The earlier report added that distribution of Nissan cars in the emerging market was expected to commence in the third quarter of 2013, with projected sales volume of about 300 units per year.
When it arrives, the Myanmar assembly facility will expand Tan Chong’s production presence in Indochina – the group opened its first international assembly plant in Da Nang, Vietnam, back in June. The TCIE Vietnam plant, which has an annual production capacity of 6,500 vehicles, builds the Nissan Sunny (the Almera in Malaysia) for domestic consumption.
Nissan isn’t the first automaker to assemble vehicles in Myanmar. Chery Automobile is already assembling small cars there, and both Suzuki and Tata – which launched its Nano compact there in May – are building small trucks in the country.
