Daimler and Renault-Nissan's planned new manufacturing facility in Aguascalientes, Mexico, will build premium compact vehicles for the Mercedes-Benz and Infiniti brands, according to a jointly released statement. The facility, to be called COMPAS (Cooperation Manufacturing Plant Aguascalientes), will be 50:50 jointly owned by the two companies and will involve a total investment of USD1 billion. The joint venture will oversee the construction and operation of the manufacturing plant. The plant will be near Nissan’s Aguascalientes #2 plant, have an annual capacity of more than 230,000 vehicles, and will employ about 3,600 by 2020, the joint statement says. The production of Infiniti vehicles will begin at the plant in 2017, while the first Mercedes-Benz products will be built in 2018. The COMPAS executive leadership includes a team from both Daimler and the Renault-Nissan Alliance, including Ryoji Kurosawa, CEO; Uwe Jarosch, chief financial officer; and Glaucio Leite, chief quality officer. These executives will be overseen by a board consisting of three people from each of the parent companies.
Significance: Along with confirming the management structure of COMPAS, Daimler and Nissan re-confirmed the next-generation premium compact cars will be built at other locations around the world, including Europe and China. The basic project was first announced in June 2014. IHS Automotive forecasts the plant will see annual production of 277,000 units by 2021, with Infiniti forecasted to see the smaller share of volume, at 42% Infiniti products and 58% Mercedes-badged products that year. Among the Infiniti products to be built on the Mercedes-Benz MFA platform is the Q30, due to be displayed in Frankfurt. The QX30, introduced at the Geneva show in March, is expected to see production in Mexico and is also built in Nissan’s plant in Sunderland, United Kingdom.
