Local Sourcing of Materials for the Nissan LEAF Brings Costs Down

Even after Nissan moved assembly of North American LEAFs to Smyrna, Tennessee in late 2012, most of the high-value components for the vehicle still came from abroad.

But the Japanese company is moving forward to localize the production in the U.S. and provides us the example of sourcing magnetic wire for electric motors from Superior Essex, based in Fort Wayne, Ind. and magnets processed in Oklahoma.

What is interesting, according to Nissan, localizing magnetic wire supply took about two years. One year for the quality testing and a second year to set up thelogistics. By the end of this year, Nissan’s electric motor facility in Decherd will use only U.S.-made magnetic wire.