Nissan and Mercedes-Benz made an agreement in 2010 to share engines and platform for Nissan’s luxury brand, Infinity and compact Mercedes-Benz vehicles. These vehicles were proposed to be manufactured on the same assembly line in the joint factory in Mexico, assembly lines of which will be opening this year.
Nissan plans to discontinue luxury car production with Mercedes-Benz
The Infinity cars were supposed to share the co-developed MFA2 platform, but according to reports Nissan is halting the development of luxury cars suspending a seven-year partnership and abandoning the use of the platform in the Infinity vehicles. The reason being the Infinity brand was not managing enough sales to sustain Mercedes-Benz's technology costs.
Both the carmakers decided to employ the common compact car architecture to cut complexity and production costs, if only it was beneficial for both the sides. However, discussions about the joint development of future premium cars are still ongoing. Nissan though has ditched the shareable platform for developing compact cars, which includes a Mercedes-based Infiniti Q40 sedan. The co-developed Mexican plant would still churn out the new QX50 SUV based on Renault-Nissan architecture this year, alongside Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
This withdrawal of Infinity’s vehicle from the Mexican facility would promptly affect the efficiency of the factory, whereas Nissan will get reduced investments in its UK factory since it utilises Mercedes-Benz’s tooling amenities there.
