The electric vehicle production challenges of General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen and various startups have gotten a lot of headlines this year. But despite being an electric pioneer, Nissan has had plenty of headaches of its own. Its Nissan Ariya crossover has faced innumerable production challenges and software woes since its launch two years ago, leading to a fairly limited supply on dealer lots and only fairly middling sales.\u00a0But now, Nissan executives in Japan say that production of the Ariya is getting much more dialed in.<\/p>\n
Managers at Nissan’s high-tech Tochigi Plant, where the Ariya is made, told Automotive News<\/em>\u00a0that the current production line is “underutilized” and only operating at two-thirds capacity. In other words, Nissan is making far fewer Ariya crossovers there than it potentially can, hampered by the array of new manufacturing techniques employed there. “It’s a totally new factory with totally new processes. We had many headwinds,” one plant manager told the publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n