May 30th, 2022, 7:17 a.m.
Nissan has ceased collecting orders for the 2023 Ariya in the US due to supply chain concerns affecting the electric SUV’s manufacture in Japan.
The Ariya facility has previously experienced delays in getting the new manufacturing line for the EV up and running when the pandemic and semiconductor crisis struck in 2020.
Nissan’s Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta remarked that in light of the most recent manufacturing setback, it is preferable to restrict orders to what can actually be delivered in a timely way as opposed to having impatient customers wait an excessive amount of time for their vehicles.
“Each and every consumer wants it, and we don’t want them to have to wait. Successful global acceptance of Ariya has occurred. We had to ask our customers to avoid placing orders everywhere, including the United States.”
How long Nissan intends to keep US Ariya orders blocked is not yet known. The Ariya page on the automaker’s US customer website states that reservations are now closed (see the screenshot at the bottom of this page).
The CEO continued, “Nissan is dealing with considerable demand from the United States, Japan, and Europe for the 2023 Ariya.”
After initially being slated to start in March, deliveries of the base Ariya model started in Japan in May. Nissan reported receiving 6,800 preorders in Japan, where it had already delivered 1,500 vehicles, in its most recent financial presentation.
This fall, Nissan will begin selling its second mass-produced electric car (EV) in the US, the Leaf. However, the automaker did not specify how many EVs would be sent to the US. However, a US dealer informed Automotive News that Nissan had granted the US market 6,000 automobiles, and that shops had a two-month window to place orders.
According to the same story, some dealers praised Nissan for neither overpromising and underdelivering on the new EV.
The Intelligent Factory, a newly constructed area of Nissan’s Tochigi assembly complex north of Tokyo, is where the Ariya is made. Due to COVID-related travel limitations, supplier engineers were unable to visit Japan and install the necessary new equipment that had been supplied from abroad, which had an impact on the plant’s ramp-up timetable.
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Costs in the US
Prices for the Nissan Ariya range from USD 45,950 to USD 58,950 in the United States. The destination fee is not included in these pricing. Under the Biden administration, Clean Vehicle Credit has taken the position of Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicle Credit following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Nissan may have saved certain customers up to USD 7,500 on their purchase if the Ariya had been introduced in the U.S. as originally intended in late 2021.
The Ariya is currently not eligible for a subsidy since the Clean Vehicle Credit mandates that the final assembly of the electric vehicle take place in North America. The Nissan Tochigi Plant in Japan ships the Ariya, whereas the Nissan Smyrna Vehicle Assembly Plant in Tennessee supplies the U.S. with the Leaf.
According to Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta, it is preferable to restrict orders to those that can be fulfilled promptly rather than risk upsetting Ariya consumers by having them wait too long.
Equipment for the Intelligent Factory, where the Ariya will be made, was affected by COVID-related constraints.
TOKYO — Nissan Motor Co. has suspended accepting U.S. preorders for its brand-new Ariya electric crossover, which was constructed in Japan. This comes as the key EV makes its debut in a sector plagued by supply chain chaos.
According to Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta, it is preferable to restrict orders to what can actually be supplied quickly rather than risk upsetting eager customers by making them wait too long.
Every consumer wants it, and we don’t want them to have to wait, said Gupta, who also mentioned that Nissan is handling the model’s high demand from the U.S., Japan, and Europe at the same time. In the United States, the model will go on sale this fall.
According to Gupta, “Ariya has been well received all across the world.” “We had to ask our customers to halt the orders, even in the United States.”
After the Leaf, which is getting on in age, the crossover is Nissan’s second electric vehicle. The pandemic and semiconductor problems coincided with the automaker’s difficulties starting up the new production line for the vehicle.
Deliveries of the base model Ariya were delayed from March and didn’t start in Japan until May. The new nameplate was once supposed to make its debut in the middle of 2021.
The Intelligent Factory, a newly created area of Nissan’s Tochigi assembly plant north of Tokyo, will be used specifically for the EV’s production. New equipment was needed for that plant project, and it came from foreign vendors. But according to a Nissan spokeswoman, COVID-related travel restrictions made it challenging for supplier engineers to go to Japan for installation and operational validation.
This month, Toyota’s new bZ4X all-electric crossover’s production was halted for eight days due to a scarcity of parts brought on by the COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai.
Toyota made its slowdown public on May 24, announcing that it would reduce the global output of a number of models by tens of thousands of units and reduce it to 850,000 units each month from June through August.
Toyota’s Motomachi plant produces the bZ4X, which also went on sale this month in Japan.
However, a U.S. dealer claimed that American merchants had a two-month opportunity to place orders for the 6,000 automobiles that were assigned to the market. In its most recent earnings report, Nissan stated that it had received 6,800 preorders in Japan and had already fulfilled 1,500 of them.
Nissan’s choice to neither overpromise and underdeliver on the new EV was praised by certain dealers.
Bill Wallace, CEO of Wallace Auto Group, which runs a Nissan dealership in Stuart, Florida and has eight Ariya orders on file, said, “Sure, we could have taken more orders.” But accepting orders that are never fulfilled simply results in disgruntled clients.
Due to supply chain issues brought on by COVID-19 and the lack of semiconductors, deliveries of the new generation Nissan Z sports car, which is also produced at the Tochigi facility, have been postponed until the summer.
Nissan’s overall production in Japan decreased 44% in March compared to the same month last year.
No plans to construct the new Ariya EV at Sunderland, Nissan reveals
The potential of Nissan constructing its new Ariya EV at its factory in Sunderland has been ruled out.
The facility, which manufactures Nissan’s best-selling crossovers, the Juke and Qashqai, seemed like a great place to manufacture the company’s new Ariya SUV, which was introduced yesterday (Jul 15).
However, the manufacturer claims it will only be made in Japan at its Tochigi facility, which also makes sports vehicles like the 370Z and GT-R as well as Infiniti and some of Nissan’s most expensive models.
‘The Ariya is going to be produced in Japan, in the Tochigi plant, and it’s been entirely modified and modernized in order to accept the new platform, which we’re launching with the Ariya,’ said Marco Fioravanti, vice-president of product planning at Nissan Europe.
Nissan’s factory in Sunderland, which employs over 6,700 people, is the biggest of its kind in the UK, but even before the Covid-19 problem, it has been plagued by uncertainty. Nissan has used the uncertainty around Brexit as a justification for holding off on additional expansion at the factory for the past few years.
Regarding Sunderland, Fioravanti continued, “It’s unquestionably one of our top objectives and the hub of our European manufacturing plants. We’re anxiously anticipating Brexit to give us the go-ahead to extend it further right now.
With the announcement that the company will instead close its Barcelona plant, with the loss of 2,800 employees, as part of a global cost-cutting initiative, the Sunderland manufacturing was given a lifeline in May.
The Ariya is the company’s second EV, despite the Leaf having been on the market for nearly a decade.
The “coupe”-crossover will be available in showrooms in the second half of 2021 in a variety of variations, including one with a long 310-mile electric range and another with 394 horsepower and a 0-60 mph time of less than five seconds.
Nissan’s Ariya for Europe will be produced in Japan rather than the UK.
Instead of the UK as first anticipated, Nissan will construct all-electric Ariya models for the European Union in Japan.
The Japanese automaker was considering producing the Ariya at its UK assembly facility in Sunderland. Nissan has chosen to produce the Ariya in Japan and export them to Europe, though the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit is growing.
According to Nikkei Asia, British auto exports would be subject to a 10% levy in the EU in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Japanese-made cars, in contrast, are subject to a reduced 7.5% levy that will be completely eliminated in 2026.
Nissan’s factory in Japan’s Tochigi Prefecture, which is located just north of Tokyo, will be in charge of handling manufacturing of Ariya vehicles going to Europe and the United States. Those manufactured locally will be those sold in China.
The Nissan Ariya was first revealed in concept form back in July, and it still has a remarkable appearance. There will be four alternative powertrain options available, depending on the market.
A rear-wheel drive model with a 65 kWh battery and an electric motor producing 215 hp and 221 lb-ft (300 Nm) of torque will be at the bottom of the range. Another rear-wheel drive vehicle with the same output and a 90 kWh battery pack will sit atop this one. There will also be two all-wheel drive models with two electric motors; the first has a 65 kWh battery and produces 335 hp and 413 lb-ft (560 Nm), while the second has a 90 kWh battery and produces 389 hp and 443 lb-ft (600 Nm).
The creator of the Nissan Ariya?
With the release of the ARIYA this year, Nissan will start the next phase of its electrification adventure. Thanks to the LEAF, Nissan has strength and longevity in the electric-car industry.
It is a wholly new design for an all-electric crossover. Nissan has nicknamed the ARIYA’s elegant design “Timeless Japanese Futurism,” a nod to the company’s heritage DNA and a novel way of thinking about how we’ll be traveling in the future with electrified vehicles.
The ARIYA is the result of tight cooperation between Nissan design teams in Europe and Japan. Its electric drivetrain and in-cabin driver features combine industry-leading craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology.
In order to bring a variety of perspectives on what the ARIYA may be, Chetan Chohan, Design Manager at Nissan Design Europe, helped lead the project from Nissan’s London office. From the early brainstorms to the first sketches to the first model, “my responsibility is to keep the team together, to bundle ideas, and to encourage individuals,” Chohan said. We were all incredibly excited because we were bringing about a new era of electrification.
Alessandro Messale of Nissan Design Europe oversaw the creation of the sketches at every stage of the design process, from the digital to the physical, and collaborated with the Japanese team to make sure the final ARIYA design could advance to engineering and manufacturing.
Is the Nissan Ariya offered in Japan?
Nissan would already have the Ariya electric SUV in its portfolio if the pandemic hadn’t started in March 2020. The all-electric crossover was initially scheduled for a presentation in 2020 and a market introduction in the summer of 2021.
What transpired thereafter is known to us. And to make matters worse, the health crisis may have contributed to the emergence of a another issue—a scarcity of electrical chips—which has further complicated efforts to deploy the Ariya. In truth, Nissan cannot escape guilt in this situation because supply chain issues have had a significant negative impact on numerous businesses. Given the circumstances at this time, any schedule provided for the launch of a model should be treated with caution.
Nissan welcomed us to Toronto earlier this year so we could see the Ariya up close. Normally, the Ariya would have had its Canadian premiere at the Montreal Auto Show this past January. The Omicron wave ultimately forced the cancellation of that event.
There was some optimism after getting a close-up look at the vehicle that a launch might eventually happen. The carmaker has stated that it would make its Canadian debut in the fall, and a media rollout should happen in the next weeks or perhaps months.
Everyone wants that, at least, but the situation is unsure at the moment. Nissan announced today that it must again postpone the domestic Japanese sale date of its electric SUV, this time because of a scarcity of semiconductors and supply chain issues. The news, which initially only impacts the Japanese market, was released late yesterday.
The vehicle was slated to go on sale in Japan at the end of March, but the new release date is May 12. In the present situation, a month and a half delay is not a significant one. Plans for our market should likewise, in theory, be unaffected, however the current state necessitates continuous observation.
The Ariya is undoubtedly a significant model for Nissan, and the excellent initial reviews are encouraging for the company’s reputation. If the delays end, that is.
The Ariya should come in the fall of 2022 if it does really make its premiere in Japan in May and enters the European market this summer as scheduled.