Ghosn leaves the door open for Nissan Mercedes pick-up cooperation

Mercedes pick-up
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Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn denied the rumours that the future Mercedes pick-up will be built on a Nissan platform in a Nissan factory.

Carlos Ghosn said that Mercedes has a lot of options for sourcing the Mercedes pick-up planned to introduce by 2020. He said that Mercedes could build the pick-up by themselves, with another partner or with Nissan.

It is not clear yet if Mercedes will sell this pick-up in North America. The initial plans are to focus on European, Latin American, Australian and South African markets.

Ghosn denied the rumour that the new Mercedes pick-up will be built in a Nissan factory.

Ghosn and CEO Daimler Dieter Zetsche has a growing list of projects from vehicle development, small car sourcing, joint-venture factories in Tennessee and Mexico and other projects they don’t disclose.

Ghosn said that many future projects with Mercedes are in question, but this does not mean that Nissan will have a role in the future Mercedes pick-up. There is no obligation for Mercedes to share a Nissan platform.

Nissan may build the Mercedes pick-up based on the Nissan Navara platform according to our speculation from March 27 but could use also an own platform.

Nissan is building two pick-up trucks in the USA, both in Mississipi: the full-size Titan and the mid-size Frontier. The Titan is sold exclusively in the USA and Mercedes is planning – at least for the beginning – to launch its pick-up outside the US and to develop by the company’s commercial truck unit.

The Frontier is sold in multiple markets and is built in many plants around the world.

As a conclusion, Ghosn said “There is no decision. The decision belongs to Mercedes. You have to wait until they will make a decision.”.