Production of the all-new 2021 Nissan Rogue is officially underway at the Nissan Smyrna Vehicle Assembly Plant in Tennessee, according to the automaker.

The new Rogue is the first of six new Nissan models for the U.S. that will be offered by the end of 2021, and follows all-new versions of the Nissan Versa and Sentra, according to Nissan. The all-new Nissan Rogue arrives at dealers throughout the U.S. this fall.

“Our U.S. manufacturing team rallied together like never before to overcome unprecedented challenges that could have impacted this moment,” says Steve Marsh, senior vice president, Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management and Purchasing, Nissan North America. “We are ready to ramp up and put Rogue on the road for customers.”

The Nissan Rogue has been in production at Smyrna Vehicle Assembly plant since 2013. The plant employs 7,000 people who have built more than 14 million vehicles since opening in 1983, with Rogue accounting for nearly 1.1 million of those vehicles.

Nissan’s manufacturing and engineering teams are using the latest technologies to bring the rogue to life. Nissan is using enhanced applications of advanced manufacturing technology such as virtual reality and collaborative robots to build the vehicle.

Nissan has deployed more collaborative car manufacturing robots with the new Rogue than it has with any other previous model launch. These robots effectively support process factory automation, resulting in improved safety performance and less strain on workers. The technology is being used to assist with a number of jobs to ensure repetitive tasks are done the same way every time. This helps free up workers to perform more skilled tasks and produce higher-quality vehicles.

Working alongside frontline technicians, Nissan manufacturing engineers also used virtual reality to troubleshoot issues before moving to the production floor. The technology not only helped to identify manufacturability concerns before the first steel was cut for production tools, but also shaped the design of process equipment through early, virtual feedback from production technicians, helping to prevent production delays.

“Not only have we improved the way we build the new Rogue, the team is using this new technology to build all the vehicles in our U.S. plants with better efficiency and quality for customers,” said David Johnson, vice president, Production Engineering and New Model Quality, Nissan North America.

Nissan’s Safety Shield 360 suite of safety features comes standard across the entire Rogue lineup and includes Automatic Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Detection, Blind Spot Warning, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Lane Departure Warning, High Beam Assist and Rear Automatic Braking.

The Rogue also offers Nissan's ProPILOT Assist, a hands-on, driver-assist technology that reduces the hassle of stop-and-go highway driving and makes long drives on the open highway easier. For 2021, the new ProPILOT Assist with Navi-link has been enhanced using next-generation radar and camera technology to provide smoother braking, better steering assist feel and improved detection performance when other vehicles cut into the lane.

Nissan Smyrna currently produces six models: Rogue, Altima, LEAF, Maxima, Pathfinder and INFINITI QX60.