Corrected: Chrysler’s LaSorda: No plans to build Nissan pickup

(This is a corrected version of a Bizz Buzz item that first appeared Friday, Jan. 11. The original version misstated the total employment  at Chrysler’s assembly plant in Fenton.)

Chrysler doesn’t have any plans to build a full-size pickup for Nissan Motor Co., though the automaker continues to explore areas of collaboration with  the Japanese rival, Chrysler Vice Chairman and President Tom LaSorda said Friday on a conference call.  

The conference call focused on the companies’ joint announcement that Nissan will supply Chrysler with a new small car for South America. The vehicle will be based on the Nissan Versa sedan and supplied in 2009.

In the Friday release, the companies said they also agreed to maintain an open dialogue to explore further product-sharing opportunities. Business Week reported Thursday that sources close to Chrysler say the U.S. company also is discussing a deal to manufacture Nissan’s full-size pickups.

Business Week said the pickup would be derived from Chrysler’s Ram and replace Nissan’s Titan, which is made in Canton, Miss.   It also said the new pickup would be built at one of Chrysler’ three  assembly plants making Rams, which are in Fenton, Warren, Mich., and Saltillo, Mexico.

During the call, LaSorda reiterated that the companies continue to discuss other collaborative opportunities.

However, when asked specifically about the report saying Chrysler would make a Nissan truck, LaSorda dismissed the report saying, “the press gets kind of anxious and likes to invent stuff.”

LaSorda  also explained that such an arrangement  would be  optimal for a plant that  aren’t being fully utilized. He then noted that Chrysler’s pickup plants will be plenty busy in the near future, as the redesigned full-size Ram will begin production in Fenton and Warren later this year.

Meanwhile, a redesigned heavy-duty Ram will be unveiled in 2009 and begin production at its third ram plant in Saltillo, Mexico, he added.

“We’ll have our hands full and the plants are in pretty good shape,” LaSorda said.

Chrysler employs about 1,970 workers its plant in Fenton and the story has already spread among some of them, said Jerry Dennison, president of United Auto Workers Union Local 136, which represents workers at that plant.

Dennison said he had no information on whether or not the story was valid, but relished the thought it might be.

“I’d be excited about he possibility of any extra product in our plant,” Dennison said. “The more products we can build the better off we are.”

Ram sales fell 1.6 percent in 2007 to 358,295, making it the sixth best seller of all vehicles in the U.S., according to figures from industry trade publication Automotive News. Meanwhile, Titan sales fell 10 percent to 64,746.