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Nissan eyes increasing U.S. production as new Rogue hybrid launches
Nissan at the New York International Auto Show in New York City on April 2, 2026.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
Nissan Motor is looking to increase its U.S. production as it launches the 2027 Rogue crossover, including with a new hybrid model that the company views as a crucial offering for American consumers.
“We’re now maxing out the production capacity in the U.S.,” Christian Meunier, chairman of Nissan Americas, told CNBC. “The next step is going to be three shifts, and I’m pretty optimistic that with the launch of the new Rogue that is happening in the next couple months, we’ll be able to do that pretty quickly with the launch of the hybrid.”
The Japanese automaker currently produces the Rogue alongside other Nissan and Infiniti crossovers at a 6 million-square-foot assembly plant on two production shifts in Smyrna, Tennessee. It also has another large manufacturing plant producing the Nissan Altima sedan and Frontier midsize pickup truck in Canton, Mississippi.
Additional production at assembly plants typically means hundreds, if not thousands, of new jobs. Nissan’s moves come as the Trump administration has been focused on increasing employment and domestic production in the U.S. auto industry.
U.S. manufacturing of the hybrid is expected to start next year after the spring production launch of the 2027 Rogue with a traditional gas engine at the Tennessee plant.
2027 Nissan Rogue
Courtesy Nissan
In the meantime, Meunier said Nissan plans to import the vehicles from Japan as a way to get them to market more quickly to lift sales and help with an ongoing global turnaround plan for the company.
Meunier said if Nissan can add a third shift to each of its assembly plants, it would boost the automaker’s U.S. production to roughly 1 million units annually, up from nearly 487,000 in 2025.
Nissan has a target to produce 80% of the vehicles it sells in the U.S. domestically by 2030, but the company has no plans for a new plant as of now.
“I think we’re very well equipped to succeed without major investment and a new factory and everything else. Maybe after 2030,” he said. “Over the next four or five years, we’ll see.”
Nissan e-Power
Nissan on Monday officially revealed the 2027 Rogue with its new “e-Power” technology for the U.S., which is the first hybrid of its kind for the American market.
The “e-Power” system is called a series hybrid.
It uses the engine as a generator to power the vehicle’s electric motors that then propel the vehicle. It operates like emerging extended-range electric vehicles, or EREVs, but has a smaller battery and doesn’t require a plug. It also does not use the engine to power the wheels, just electric motors.
Meunier said the Rogue hybrid and resurrecting the Xterra off-road SUV were his top vehicle priorities when he rejoined Nissan in January 2025 after four and a half years with Jeep. That included pulling ahead the Rogue hybrid twice for the U.S.
The Rogue is a sales leader for the company in the U.S. It competes in the highly competitive small crossover segment against the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V, which have the best-selling hybrid options in that category.
“The hybrid power that we’re launching on Rogue is going to really be the boost to our performance,” Meunier said. “It’s been quite remarkable to be able to grow without having a hybrid in the U.S. because the hybrids are obviously becoming more and more popular.”
Meunier said Nissan plans to position the Rogue e-Power squarely against the Toyota RAV4. He said that may include an unconventional sales option to allow potential customers to test drive both vehicles at Nissan dealerships, which wouldn’t typically have a Toyota available.
The 2026 Toyota RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid GR Sport at the Vancouver Auto Show in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, March 25, 2026.
James MacDonald | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The focus on the Rogue hybrid comes after Nissan and other automakers lost billions of dollars on all-electric vehicles amid a pullback in regulatory support as well as lackluster consumer demand.
Nissan has said the e-Power is a better solution than EVs or even traditional hybrids for U.S. consumers, especially amid inflated fuel prices due to the Iran war.
“It’s going to make people look at Nissan with different eyes,” Meunier said. “A lot of customers that didn’t even consider us until the hybrid comes to market.”
Nissan turnaround
Nissan’s renewed focus on the U.S. comes amid a global turnaround plan.
Under the strategy, the Japanese automaker intends to streamline its automobile lineup by getting rid of low-performing models and increasing its use of technologies such as artificial intelligence.
The plan includes the company targeting 1 million vehicle sales for its Nissan brand in both the U.S. and China by the 2030 financial year and growing its annual sales volume in Japan to 550,000 cars by that time.
For the U.S., Meunier said he is satisfied with the progress Nissan has made since he returned to the automaker last year.
After several years of struggling sales, Nissan’s U.S. sales through the first half of the year were up roughly 10% compared with Cox Automotive reporting a roughly 3% decline for the broader industry during that time.
“I think the next few months are going to be pretty good. Pretty tough, but pretty good,” Meunier said. “We’re going to have a strong close of the calendar year in December.”
More customers usually means more conversations, but volume is only part of the problem. Support requests may need to move between departments, customer information may live in different systems, and managers need better visibility into response times and recurring issues.
Customer service software can bring these processes together. Here are 10 platforms businesses can consider as their support operation grows.
1. Hiver
Hiver is built for customer service teams that need to manage complex requests across multiple channels and departments.
Rather than treating support as a series of isolated tickets, Hiver brings conversations, teams, and connected business tools into one workspace. Support teams can assign owners, prioritize requests, collaborate with colleagues, and maintain context when an issue moves between departments.
Its AI capabilities are also designed for more than simple FAQ automation. AI Agents can investigate requests, follow defined procedures, and take actions across connected systems. AI Copilot can support human agents by finding information, reviewing similar tickets, suggesting next steps, and drafting replies.
That combination makes Hiver an option for growing teams that need customer service software to support both human agents and increasingly automated workflows.
2. Help Scout
Help Scout is a popular option for businesses that want customer support software without an overly complicated implementation.
Its shared inbox gives teams a centralized place to manage customer conversations, while additional tools support knowledge bases, reporting, and customer information.
It can be a practical fit for growing teams that want to introduce more structure to support without building an especially complex service operation.
3. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk can be particularly useful for companies already using products within the Zoho ecosystem.
It provides core help desk features such as ticket management, automation, reporting, and multichannel support. Connections with other Zoho applications can also help businesses bring customer service closer to sales, marketing, and other operational processes.
4. Gorgias
Gorgias is particularly focused on ecommerce customer service. Its platform allows online businesses to bring customer conversations into a centralized support environment.
For ecommerce teams, integrations with store and customer data can help agents access relevant information while handling questions about orders, products, and customers.
5. LiveAgent
LiveAgent provides a broad range of customer service features, including ticketing, live chat, call center functionality, and other communication channels.
This makes it worth considering for businesses that are moving beyond email-based support and want to bring multiple customer contact points into one platform.
6. HappyFox
HappyFox provides help desk functionality for businesses looking to organize and automate their support operations.
Features such as ticket management, workflows, reporting, and knowledge management can help growing teams establish consistent processes as customer volume increases.
7. Kustomer
Kustomer is designed around customer-centric service. Instead of focusing exclusively on individual tickets, it gives agents a broader view of customer interactions.
This approach can be helpful for businesses where the quality of support depends on understanding the customer’s previous conversations and history.
8. Missive
Missive combines shared inboxes with team collaboration. This can make it useful for growing teams where customer conversations frequently require input from multiple people.
Rather than moving every internal discussion into a separate application, teams can collaborate around customer conversations within the same environment.
9. Freshservice
Freshservice is designed primarily around IT service management, but its service-oriented workflows can be relevant for organizations that need structured request management across internal teams.
Its focus on workflows, automation, knowledge management, and service processes can help organizations formalize operations as they become more complex.
10. Intercom Alternatives
Businesses looking for customer service software have a wide range of platforms beyond the most established names in the market.
Depending on the support model, alternatives can include dedicated help desks, shared inbox platforms, ecommerce support tools, and AI-focused customer service platforms. The important factor is matching the platform to the complexity of the team’s actual workflow rather than selecting software based solely on brand recognition.
What should growing businesses look for?
Growth changes what a support team needs from its software.
A tool that works for five agents may become difficult to manage when the team has several departments, multiple channels, and hundreds or thousands of customer interactions.
Look for software that offers:
Centralized conversations
Customer requests should be easy to find and manage regardless of where they originate.
Clear ownership
Every request should have a clear owner, status, and priority so customers do not get lost between teams.
Cross-team collaboration
Support often involves departments outside customer service. The software should make it easy to involve the right people without losing the original context.
Automation
Routing, notifications, repetitive updates, and other manual tasks can consume significant amounts of agent time as volume increases.
Useful AI
AI can help with more than answering basic questions. Consider whether it can assist agents with research, drafting, classification, workflows, and more complex requests.
Analytics
Growing teams need to understand more than how many tickets they closed. Reporting should help managers identify recurring problems, bottlenecks, response trends, and opportunities to improve service.
The right customer service platform should give a growing business more control over its support operation without adding unnecessary complexity.
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Quick Read
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Oracle stock plunged 50% despite co-CEOs delivering a $664 billion contract backlog and 121% cloud infrastructure revenue growth in one year.
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Q1 capex hit $28.5 billion with free cash flow negative $5.4 billion, as FY27 spending guidance reaches $90 to $95 billion.
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Wall Street remains 82% bullish with a $238 consensus target, and we award the co-CEOs a B+ for operational execution in year one.
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Just released. Our analysts combed the entire stock market and named the ten best stocks to buy right now, and Oracle didn’t make the cut. Enter your email to see the names that beat ORCL. The report is free. Enter your email and see if any of your stocks made the cut.
One year into the most recent co-CEO era at Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), the stock is down 50.2% over the trailing 12 months, with a 52-week range that has swung from a high of $329.50 to a low of $114.50. Shares changed hands around $148.99 in Monday’s premarket.
Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia took over as co-CEOs near the peak. The contracted business under their leadership then grew at a pace almost nothing in enterprise software has matched. The stock went the other way. Did the business genuinely improve, or did the market simply reprice what investors will pay for growth that requires heavy capital investment?
What Changed Under the New Chiefs
Remaining performance obligations, essentially the dollar value of signed contracts not yet recognized as revenue, ended Q1 FY2027 at $664 billion, a $209 billion year-over-year increase. Cloud infrastructure revenue grew 121%, and Oracle booked more than $30 billion in new AI cloud contracts in a single quarter.
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The operational execution has real substance. Oracle delivered 850 megawatts and more than 300,000 GPUs since Q4, with utilization at 97.9% and renewals coming in at a 20% premium. Total revenue reached $19.34 billion, up 29.6%, versus the $14.93 billion posted in the quarter the handover happened. Co-CEO Magouyrk said, “We are delivering data center and GPU capacity at a pace that would have seemed impossible only a year ago.”
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