00:00President Trump took to Truth Social congratulating Nissan for its manufacturing success in the U.S.
00:07Here to talk about all that is Nissan America's chairman, Christian Meunier.
00:10Christian, great to have you on the program.
00:13I can't wait to talk about your products because I've been driving one recently, which I found really impressive.
00:19But I have to ask first about your manufacturing footprint.
00:22How important is it to you to be manufacturing here?
00:26And, you know, what are you doing with your plants, for example, in Mexico?
00:32So thank you. Thank you for inviting me.
00:35I'm very honored to have received that congratulation from the president of the U.S.
00:39It's a big honor. And obviously, we're very focused on on producing where we sell.
00:45And obviously, with the tariff, it's been an accelerator in the right direction.
00:49We've been forced to accelerate the localization in the U.S., bring more production in the U.S.
00:56And, you know, plants in Tennessee and Mississippi, we're maxing out the production.
01:01Just to give you an idea, you know, a year ago in the month of January, 45 percent of the
01:05cars were selling in the U.S.
01:07were made in the U.S.
01:08And now we're above 60 percent.
01:10And the objective is really to reach an 80 percent mix of production in the U.S. for the U
01:16.S.
01:16At the same time, obviously, we still have a pretty significant footprint in Mexico.
01:21And we're building very affordable cars, so cars below $30,000.
01:25And we're very focused to get the cars down, obviously, to keep bringing them to the U.S.
01:30Because affordability in the U.S. is a big issue.
01:33And obviously, the tariffs are killing us at this moment.
01:35So we'll have discussion with the U.S. government, the Mexican government, to see if there is a way for
01:41us to have a little bit of a break on the tariffs.
01:44Because today, at 25 percent, it becomes very unsustainable.
01:47But we still absorb the cost at this moment and bring affordable cars.
01:52We have six cars below $30,000.
01:54And we're very proud of that.
01:56I think it's important for the U.S. consumers to have affordable cars, the right technologies and safety.
02:02And we're doing that.
02:03Christian, how have those conversations gone with those respective governments, with the U.S. and with Mexico?
02:08Are you optimistic that they're going to give you some sort of break around tariffs?
02:15It's been a challenge.
02:16It's been a challenge because I think these issues that we have on tariffs is intertwined with other issues, which
02:23are more political.
02:24And I don't want to dwell too much on that.
02:27But at least I think the governments are aware of the situation.
02:30And I think affordability is very important for the U.S. government.
02:33And hopefully, we're going to get some good news in the next few weeks so that we can continue to
02:38have affordable centrais and kicks for the American consumers.
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