It seems as though production cuts are a now a daily occurrence in the automotive industry, with today being no different. Nissan already announced that it will be slashing SUV production due to weakening demand, but the cuts will be much more far reaching than just that.

Although specific numbers for each plant are not yet available, Nissan announced on Tuesday that it will be cutting production by 65,000 units at its Kyushu and Tochigi plants in Japan between November and March – the end of the automaker’s fiscal year. The production cuts are in addition to the 10,000 vehicles already eliminated from Tochigi’s production schedule in September.

Nissan’s Tochigi production facility is responsible for producing about 95 percent of all Infiniti vehicles sold in North America, according to Automotive News. Nissan’s Kyushu plant mainly produces SUVs for the North American market.

“We will implement a production cut in response to sales conditions in North America,” a Nissan spokeswoman told Automotive News.

Nissan also announced that it will idle production at its Sunderland for two weeks and will also shorten work weeks for three weeks between October and November. The Sunderland plant, which is located in the UK, produces the Micra and Note for European markets.

Nissan’s production plant in Barcelona – which produces the Pathfinder, Navara and Primastar van – will also idle production for one week and shorten shifts for an additional eight weeks.

Nissan has seemingly been immune to the sales crunch so many other automakers have been experiencing, so it comes as some surprise that the Japanese automaker announced yesterday that it is scaling back production of its until recently strong-selling Altima and just-launched Maxima. The cuts come in response to a 40 percent fall off in Altima sales and lukewarm reception to the Maxima.

Nissan will produce 4,250 fewer Altima sedans, coupes and hybrids in 2008 than the automaker had intended and it’s reducing Maxima production by 900 units - a fairly large number given Nissan’s relatively low sales expectations for its flagship sedan.

As other automakers continually post dramatically reduced sales, Nissan had been posting good numbers thanks to strong Altima, Versa and Sentra sales. The automaker hasn’t announced any cuts for the smaller models and most analysts predict that 2009 will be a decent year for the automaker. Nissan was one of the first to put a focus on small, efficient cars with upscale features and that gamble has paid off as gas prices increased.

“The cars themselves, particularly Altima, are not selling badly in relation to the rest of the industry,” said Haig Stoddard of industry analyst Global Insight. “But demand for a lot of typically strong sellers will be down simply because the overall market is drying up.”

Nissan doesn’t seem too concerned by the cuts.

“It was a tough month of economic factors for everybody,” Katherine Zachary, a spokeswoman for Nissan North America, told Automotive News.

Nissan, hardly a major player in the global hybrid market with its one Toyota-engineered model (the Altima Hybrid), says it is staying out of hybrids altogether when it comes to small cars. Instead, Nissan plans to focus its efforts on zero-emissions electric vehicles.

Speaking at the Shanghai Motor Show, Nissan Senior Vice President Andy Palmer told Automotive News that EVs are a “more persuasive technology.”

“That’s where we’re directing our efforts,” he said. “In the small cars, it’s clear we’re going to make the EV happen.”

It seems clear that Nissan won’t create a small car hybrid entry to compete with the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, though the automaker is planning to launch an Infiniti-badged hybrid in the next year. By comparison, Toyota is planning to integrate its hybrid system into its Yaris small car and Honda says it is working on a hybrid Fit.

Nissan’s small EV could arrive in North America as early as 2010. Its batteries, developed through a partnership with NEC, will be built in Smyrna, Tennessee, if Nissan gets the United States Department of Energy loan it applied for recently. The Japanese automaker recently began a coast-to-coast tour of its Cube-based EV prototype.