Mexico – The 50:50 partnership will see the construction of a new plant at Aguascalientes, in the vicinity of an existing Nissan facility. The new plant will have a workforce of 5,700 personnel and an annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles after ramp-up. Production will begin in 2017 with Infiniti models, before Mercedes-Benz vehicles are added in 2018.
Nissan and Daimler will share the investment cost of the €1 billion plant, which is expected to reach full capacity in 2021. Nissan has been making vehicles at Aguascalientes since 1992 and has expanded significantly over the past year, opening the first phase of a $2 billion manufacturing complex in November. Daimler has production plants for trucks and buses in Saltillo, Santiago Tianguistenco and Garcia; a parts distribution centre in San Luis Potosí; and a remanufacturing plant in Toluca. For passenger cars, Daimler has a pre-delivery inspection and training centre.
“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,” said Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management of Daimler and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.
Acknowledging that a collaboration in Europe that was founded slightly over four years ago has now become “global in scope”, Renault-Nissan’s chairman and CEO, Carlos Ghosn, commented: “Joint development of compact premium vehicles and joint production in Aguascalientes together represent one of the largest projects between the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler”.
Close collaboration between Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz throughout the development process, from advanced R&D to production, is planned to ensure that vehicles within the scope of the project will differ considerably in product design and specification. Meanwhile, a high localisation rate is expected to grow the Mexican supply base.