Nissan Diesel has been building the light duty trucks Nissan Patrol Pickup for overseas market and Nissan Atlas F24 for the Japanese domestic market.  However, UD Trucks will soon end their partnership with Nissan Motor Co. as of January 2011.  Nissan Shatai, a subsidiary of Nissan based in Kyoto would take over the production of the Nissan Atlas F24 light duty pickup trucks.  Nissan Shatai’s Shonan Plant will manufacture Patrol Pickup starting from June 2011.

As per the views expressed by the top management of UD Trucks, this move to move the production of light duty trucks to Nissan Shatai would allow UD Trucks to concentrate on heavy duty and medium duty trucks.  For manufacturing light-duty pickup trucks for the overseas market, UD Trucks would however maintain its own assembly lines.

From the point of view of Nissan Motors, this move is a part of their goal to optimize assembly lines by consolidating production of similar vehicle types – Nissan Patrol SUV and Nissan Patrol Pickup – in this case.  Nissan Patrol SUV, which has lot of similarity to the Patrol Pickup is currently being manufactured by the Nissan Shatai’s Shonan Plant.  The end of collaboration contract for the production of light-duty trucks will have any serious impact on the UD Truck’s financial position or earnings as the move would not incur any costs related to restructuring.

UD Trucks manufactured 6,200 light duty trucks in 2009, in partnership contract with Nissan Motors.  In the first two quarters of this year, it produced and marketed 4,800 light duty trucks for Nissan Motor Co.

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