"Production on the Smyrna complex, which will build the Nissan LEAF and its batteries. was pushed back more than a month due to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Fortunately, Nissan’s head of North American manufacturing says he’s positive his team will catch up.
“We’re still targeting to launch on time,” said Bill Krueger, head of the company’s manufacturing and supply chain management. “It’s too early to give up on meeting our original timing. We have just shy of a year and a half to make it up.”
Currently, there are just two plants in Japan building the Nissan LEAF its battery modules. Nissan North America Inc. plans to begin mass producing the LEAF and its batteries in Smyrna by late 2012.
“We had people over there training when the lights went out,” Krueger said. “Production didn’t happen for a month. That drove the training curve back.”
Nissan is spending $1.6 billion to build the plant that will crank out about 200,000 battery modules a year and an assemble as many as 150,000 Leafs annually.
Japanese tooling companies are currently making equipment for the 2012 launch. Technical staffs from Japan are following their own schedules to meet the Smyrna launch.
“We’re looking at work-arounds to try to accelerate the schedule now,” Krueger said, in regards to changes in the order of project tasks.
“The tsunami and the destruction certainly didn’t help. But we’re going to try to make up those losses.”"
Em: http://nissan-leaf.net/2011/07/14/nissa ... late-2012/