Nissan Motor Co. said it expanded its Michigan engineering operations with a $40 million vehicle safety testing laboratory.
The 116,000-square-foot addition to the Nissan Technical Center North America in suburban Detroit will boost efficiency in the vehicle development process, the automaker said in a statement on Wednesday.
“This expansion underscores Nissan’s commitment to the region and enables us to be a global center of excellence for new vehicle testing,” said Chris Reed, the regional senior vice president of R&D at Nissan Americas. “The goal of virtually zero fatalities is always guiding our work.”
No new jobs were created by the expansion. Nissan said its R&D operations for the Americas employ about 1,200 people.
The laboratory will enable Nissan to conduct full vehicle crash testing, certification, advanced development testing and benchmarking, Nissan said in the statement. Employees there have the capability to conduct 48 safety crash test simulations.
Nissan said the laboratory has advanced photography systems, data acquisition equipment, a vehicle tow system, a test dummy calibration laboratory, a pedestrian safety laboratory and space for getting vehicles ready.
The company first opened the center in Farmington Hills, Mich., in 1991 and has now invested $310 million into the operation.
