Daimler Will Accelerate Cooperation with Renault-Nissan

Renault-Nissan Daimler cooperation
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From three projects at the beginning for the European market, the cooperation between Daimler and Renault Nissan expands to 12 projects in Europe, Asia and North America.

Renault-Nissan and Daimler launched their partnership in 2010. The scope of the original collaboration was limited to three projects primarily in Europe. The combined portfolio shared between Renault-Nissan and Daimler has since quadrupled to 12 projects in Europe, Asia and North America.

With the help of Renault-Nissan, Daimler could bring to profit the smart brand

This autumn, Renault-Nissan and Daimler launch their first common project developed from scratch: the new Renault Twingo and the new smart fortwo and smart forfour. The Renault Twingo went on sale in Europe in September, while the smart fortwo and smart forfour will go on sale in November. The city cars are built on a jointly developed rear-wheel-drive architecture which involved teams from both sides working closely together these last four years.

The smart fortwo is being built at smart’s Hambach plant in France, while the Twingo and the smart forfour are being produced at Renault’s plant in Novo Mesto, Slovenia.

In June 2014, Nissan and Daimler announced plans to jointly develop premium compact vehicles and to jointly manufacture them in Mexico.

Construction of a jointly-owned facility in Aguascalientes, in the immediate vicinity of an already existing Nissan plant, will begin in early 2015. Production will begin in 2017 with Infiniti models. The production of Mercedes-Benz vehicles will follow in 2018. When fully ramped up, the Mexico facility will have production capacity of 300,000 units per year.

First compact models from Infiniti – Q30 and QX30 – will use Mercedes MFA Platform

The premium compact vehicles will also be produced at other Daimler and Nissan plants around the world, including Europe and China.

Infiniti will build first two compact premium models in the company history based on MFA Mercedes platform: Q30 which will compete with A-Class but also with Audi A3 and BMW 1 Serie and QX30 which will be a rival for GLA, Audi Q3 and BMW X1.

On the other hand, Renault began delivery of 1.6 liter diesel engine for the new Mercedes C-Class and for the new Mercedes Vito. Renault supply also 1 liter 3 cylinder aspirated and 0.9 litre 3 cylinder turbo engines for the new smart generation.

In June, joint production of a 2-liter, turbocharged 4-cylinder gasoline engine began at a newly established Nissan and Daimler powertrain facility in Decherd, Tennessee, USA. The engines produced by the Infiniti Decherd Powertrain Plant will initially be used in European versions of the Infiniti Q50 sports sedan and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class. The new facility will have installed capacity of 250,000 units per year.

In the van segment, Daimler’s Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., have just signed a contract for the supply of finished commercial vans for export. Under the contract, Nissan will supply its “NV350 Urvan” (GVW: 3.5 tons) commercial van to Mitsubishi Fuso which will sell it as ‘Canter Van’ in the Middle East starting in 2014.