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Workers will build new Infiniti JX, Nissan Pathfinder crossovers
Courtesy of The Tennessean

Nissan plans to hire 1,000 new workers for its Smyrna plant over the next year to staff a second shift for the assembly line making the all-new Infiniti JX and the new generation of the Nissan Pathfinder, company officials said today (Monday).

Production of the JX – the first luxury vehicle ever to be built at the Smyrna plant – began just before noon Monday, and the redesigned Pathfinder will follow later this year. Both are new seven-passenger crossover utility vehicles that share their basic architecture.

After a ceremony marking Job One, the first sellable unit of the JX to come off the assembly line, Nissan Americas Vice Chairman Bill Kruger said the employees hired to staff the second shift for the two new vehicles will be in addition to workers being added for the $1 billion lithium-ion battery plant that will open later this year.

Nissan has previously said that the battery facility, which will provide battery packs for the Nissan Leaf electric car, would need about 1,000 workers as well. In addition, U.S. production of the Leaf itself will begin early next year at Smyrna, and more workers are expected to be hired to build that vehicle. An additional 90 workers will be hired to make electric motors for the Leaf at Nissan’s engine plant in Decherd, Tenn.

The startup of production of the JX was a milestone for the plant second in importance only to the original beginning of manufacturing at the Smyrna complex in 1983, said Mark Swenson, vice president of production engineering for the Franklin-based Nissan Americas.

“It’s a lot of responsibility,” Swenson said of the plant’s move to make luxury cars. “Quality is the key.”

All of Infiniti’s other vehicles are now made in Japan, and as Nissan’s luxury brand, its products are expected to have a high level of craftsmanship not generally found in less-expensive, mass-market vehicles.

The JX, which begins at just under $41,000, goes on sale as soon as the vehicles begin arriving at dealerships, Kruger said – sometime in mid-March.