Auto industry analysts expect tariffs to push new and used vehicle pricing higher as time goes on, but some automakers are pledging price freezes while they assess the damage. Nissan is among them, recently announcing that it would hold prices flat until June as it cranks through existing dealer inventory.
Nissan has around three months of existing inventory that won’t be impacted by the new import duties and said that it would not raise prices until at least June 2. U.S. sales chief Vinay Shahani told dealers, “While we know these new vehicle tariffs will have an impact on affordability for car buyers over a long period of time, we will try to minimize that impact on Nissan buyers.”
Shahani said the automaker was evaluating its U.S. production capacity to determine where it could best localize its efforts, though Nissan is in a precarious position, with almost half of its sales coming from four SUVs. That said, the automaker’s Tennessee and Mississippi factories only ran at about half capacity last year, presenting several opportunities for Nissan to effectively weather the storm.
Nissan has already canceled a planned assembly line shutdown in Smyrna, TN, where it builds the Rogue, saying it would increase output by more than 50 percent over the next year. The same could happen to the Pathfinder and Frontier pickup, giving Nissan domestic production of its most popular core models.
[Images: Nissan]
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