SEOUL (Reuters) — Renault-Nissan will export 38 per cent more Nissan Rogue crossovers to the US from South Korea in 2015 than planned earlier, to meet rising demand in North America.

The alliance will produce 110,000 Rogue crossovers at Renault’s South Korean factory for US exports this year, from its previous plan of 80,000.

Nissan started producing the Rogue in South Korea and shipping it to the US last year, a move that helped boost the factory utilisation of Renault Samsung, the South Korean unit of the French carmaker.

Renault Samsung, squeezed by bigger rival Hyundai Motor Co and German imports, saw its domestic sales nearly halve in 2012, although they have been recovering since then.

The Rogue, of which a new version was launched in 2013, is Nissan’s second best-selling model in the US after its Altima mid-size sedan, and posted a 13 per cent rise in sales in January from a year earlier. Overall sales of compact crossovers rose 20 per cent in the month.

Nissan also shifted the production of Rogue from Japan to the US and started producing the model in Tennessee in 2013.