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DETROIT, April 7 (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co on Monday outlined plans to enter the U.S. market for light work trucks and said it planned a $118-million expansion to its Canton, Mississippi, plant to roll out three new models.Nissan <7201.T> said it had forged partnerships with Cummins Inc to supply diesel engines and ZF Friedrichshafen AG for automatic transmissions.The components will be used to power a line of yet-to-be announced work trucks Nissan said it will launch starting in 2010, a move that takes aim at a steady market now dominated by General Motors Corp and Ford Motor Co. Nissan already has light commercial vehicle operations in Japan, China and Europe and is planning to expand in the fast-growing markets of India and Russia, said Andy Palmer, vice president of the four-year-old business group at Nissan.The automaker, which is 44-percent owned by France's Renault , has not sold commercial vehicles in the United States, although it dominates the market for light pickup trucks and vans in Mexico.In shifting to produce trucks for the U.S. market, Nissan will halt production at its Mississippi plant of the Quest minivan and the Infiniti QX56 luxury sport utility vehicle.Company representatives declined to comment on plans for those vehicles beyond the 2010 launch of the first of the new work trucks. "They're still in production. They still have a number of years to go," said Dominique Thormann, senior vice president for Nissan North America.Nissan's Canton, Mississippi plant employs about 3,700 workers, and the company said it expected employment to hold steady through the transition to the new truck line-up.The plant, which was opened in 2003, also builds the Nissan Altima mid-size sedan and the Titan full-size pickup truck. Nissan said the $118-million investment would allow it to reconfigure the plant and add a new paint facility to handle the larger commercial vehicles.Nissan said Cummins would develop and supply two diesel engines that will meet federal and more stringent California emissions standards for 2010.Both Cummins and ZF will build their components in the United States, Palmer said.A version of the Cummins diesel engine also could be potentially adapted for eventual use in the Titan pickup truck, he said. "Obviously it's possible," he said.Nissan is targeting commercial vehicles that are less than about 16,000 pounds, or eight tons -- a broad grouping that includes vehicles classed as both light- and medium-duty under U.S. standards.That category includes work vans such as the Ford Econoline and the Chevrolet Express and the Dodge Sprinter from Chrysler LLC that are sold to corporate fleet operators and small businesses.Palmer said Nissan would have the advantage in competing against established vehicles of selling all-new designs now being developed at a Nissan facility in Farmington, Michigan."They're not spring chickens," Palmer said of the rival commercial trucks. "I think the world has moved on since they were designed."In order to spearhead its U.S. light commercial truck operations, Nissan hired Joe Castelli, a 23-year Ford veteran to become vice president for the operation in December.Castelli said he would be meeting with Nissan dealers to solicit interest in selling the new line of work trucks in the areas around larger cities. He said between 250 and 300 of Nissan's roughly 1,100 U.S. dealers would likely end up handling sales and service for the new vehicles.Nissan's light commercial vehicle business unit sold more than 518,000 units globally in fiscal 2007, up from 490,000 in fiscal 2006.The largest single market for Nissan's light work trucks is China. Nissan has a partnership in that market with Dongfeng Automobile C
Good, MS can use the employment.
