Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz and Nissan made a mutual agreement to share engines and platform back in 2010. With this covenant, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz built a joint factory in Mexico, assembly lines of which will be opening this year. The plant will be manufacturing vehicles for Nissan’s premium brand, Infinity, and Mercedes-Benz’s vehicles, both of which shared the co-developed MFA2 platform.
But according to reports, Nissan is halting the development of luxury cars adjourning a seven-year partnership and ceding the use of the MFA2 platform in the Infinity vehicles. The reason being the Infinity brand was not managing enough sales to sustain Mercedes-Benz's technology costs.
This withdrawal of Infinity’s vehicle from the Mexican facility would promptly affect the efficiency of the factory, whereas Nissan will get a reduced investments in its UK factory since it utilises Mercedes-Benz’s tooling amenities there.
Both the companies decided to use the common compact car architecture to cut complexity and production costs if only it is beneficial for both the sides. Joint projects such as these are constantly reviewed against targets to account for developments beyond the control of management, according to reports. However, discussions about the joint development of future premium compact cars are still ongoing. This move also highlights the efforts of Nissan to transform its Infinity brand into a significant global one in the lucrative luxury car market, which even after a 28 years of inception, isn’t as large as Toyota's premium brand, Lexus, which was launched in the same year as Infinity but has grown three folds ever since.
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.
