Photo: Daimler AG
As we reported earlier this week, an agreement between Daimler AG and the Renault-Nissan Alliance surrounding a new co-production contract was to be made in the upcoming weeks, but it seems that the two companies moved even faster than we were expecting.
Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche and Renault-Nissan CEO Carlso Ghosn announced earlier today that their two companies will establish a 50:50 joint-venture that will oversee construction of an all-new manufacturing facility in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
The new factory will be built alongside an existing Nissan plant and will apparently have an annual capacity of 300,000 cars that will wear Mercedes-Benz and Infiniti badges.
The start of vehicle production is planned in 2017 for Infiniti models, which we suspect will be the Q30 and the QX30 – essentially Infiniti's versions of the current Mercedes-Benz A-Class and the GLA. At least two Mercedes-Benz models will follow in 2018, with our bet being on the GLA and an A-Class sedan based on the second generation of the MFA (Modular Front-wheel drive Architecture) platform.
“In Aguascalientes, we will take our successful partnership to the next level by combining the skills of our two companies Daimler and Nissan in one production plant. Just over four years after the cooperation was founded, the decision for the new plant in Mexico is a major milestone.” said Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.
The total investment cost for the Aguascalientes site will be of approximately EUR 1 billion (approximately $ 1.4 billion) and will be shared between Daimler and Nissan.
The new factory will be built alongside an existing Nissan plant and will apparently have an annual capacity of 300,000 cars that will wear Mercedes-Benz and Infiniti badges.
The start of vehicle production is planned in 2017 for Infiniti models, which we suspect will be the Q30 and the QX30 – essentially Infiniti's versions of the current Mercedes-Benz A-Class and the GLA. At least two Mercedes-Benz models will follow in 2018, with our bet being on the GLA and an A-Class sedan based on the second generation of the MFA (Modular Front-wheel drive Architecture) platform.
“In Aguascalientes, we will take our successful partnership to the next level by combining the skills of our two companies Daimler and Nissan in one production plant. Just over four years after the cooperation was founded, the decision for the new plant in Mexico is a major milestone.” said Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.
The total investment cost for the Aguascalientes site will be of approximately EUR 1 billion (approximately $ 1.4 billion) and will be shared between Daimler and Nissan.
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