Nissan declared on Wednesday that it will shut down its CIVAC assembly plant in Cuernavaca, Mexico, by March 2026 due to underutilization and ongoing financial difficulties. The closure will mark the end of operations at the company’s first overseas manufacturing site, which began production in 1966.
The move comes just weeks after Nissan announced plans to close its Oppama plant in Japan, as part of its broader Re:Nissan global recovery plan. Under this strategy, the company is cutting its global production capacity from 3.5 million to 2.5 million vehicles, while working to increase plant utilization rates to nearly 100%. To support the shift, Nissan is streamlining its manufacturing operations by cutting the number of its production sites worldwide from 17 to 10.
The CIVAC facility currently manufactures the South American version of the Frontier pickup—marketed as the NP300, NP300 Navara, or NP300 Frontier alongside the Mexico-exclusive V-Drive sedan, derived from the N17 Versa, and the latest N18 Versa model sold in the U.S. Nissan has confirmed that all vehicle production from CIVAC will be transferred to another facility in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
The CIVAC plant began operations in 1966 with production of the Datsun Bluebird, and expanded in 1975 by adding a second assembly line dedicated to light trucks. Since then, the 4.4-million-square-foot facility has manufactured more than 6.5 million vehicles and now represents 11% of Nissan’s total production in Mexico.
Nissan cited aging infrastructure and underused capacity as primary reasons for its decision to close the CIVAC plant. The company has been scaling back its global manufacturing operations in response to falling sales and ongoing profitability issues. CIVAC will become the third international plant Nissan has opted to shut down, following previously declared closures in Argentina and India, according to Automotive News.
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