The automaker did not say when or where —or if — it will build next-generation versions of the minivan and big SUVS, which are slow sellers in declining market segments, when the plant switches to the unspecified commercial trucks.

"The decision has not been finalized. The intention is to continue them, but we don't know where we will manufacture them," Nissan spokeswoman Frederique Le Greves said Monday.

"When we get to the end of each vehicle's cycle, we look at the market" and decide the fate of each vehicle, she said.

Quest is an also-ran in the shrinking minivan market, with sales down about 38% the first quarter vs. a year ago, according to Autodata. Its sales rank it eighth among nine vans currently in production, behind even the nearly invisible Mazda5 mini-minivan.

Armada, a big SUV based on the Titan full-size pickup, also was off 38% the first quarter, in a market down 12%, according to Autodata.

The Infiniti QX, a luxury version of Armada, had sales up 11%, but it sells in such small numbers that it ranks 80th of 102 SUVs currently in production.

Canton will continue to make the Nissan Altima sedan and Titan pickup, Nissan said, and it will invest $118 million to expand Canton to build three commercial vehicles in 2010 for the North American market. The trucks will use Cummins diesel engines specifically designed for Nissan and manufactured in the USA, Nissan said.

"They are not European vehicles that we already make. They will be designed, developed and manufactured in the U.S. for U.S. customers," Le Greves said.

Nissan would not describe them further, beyond saying they will be in the under-8-ton gross vehicle weight (GVW) category. A GVW rating is the weight of the truck plus the cargo it can carry safely. If the GVW rating is 8 tons and the truck weighs 6 tons, it safely can carry 2 tons.

Heavy-duty versions of conventional passenger vehicles, such as so-called 1-ton SUVs and pickups (for their cargo capability), have GVW ratings up to about 5 tons.

A few Detroit models go further, however. For example, the beefiest of Ford's F-Series, the F-550, are available with GVW ratings up to 9.5 tons. Such vehicles generally use dual rear wheels on each side, instead of the singles on lighter-duty models.

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