Industry News: Report Says Infiniti and Daimler Joint Compact Car Project Has Been Halted

[William Maley]

Back in 2010, Renault-Nissan and Daimler announced a new partnership that would see the two share powertrains and work on various projects. Some of those have come to fruition such as the Infiniti QX30, which is a Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class in different clothing and the platform that underpins the Infiniti QX50. But other projects between the two have been halted.

Late last week, the Nikkan Kogyo business daily reported that joint development of luxury compact car project has been suspended. The paper cites the change in consumer preference to crossovers and the uncertainties over tariffs. The second reason is important as the new compact sedan was expected to built at a plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico. The plant is 50/50 joint venture between Daimler and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance.

Nissan spokesman Shiro Nagai declined to comment when asked by Automotive News. He did say that Nissan remains committed to the partnership.

Source: Nikkan Kogyo via Automotive News (Subscription Required)

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[David]

Commitment is an understatement. Toyota and GM was committed to the Pontiac Vibe / Toyota Matrix and that still ended.

Tradewar is going to play hell with this types of partnerships especially as companies look to adjust based on consumer preference.

An example of the Future for everyone is that in the first full month of having an complete EV plug-in auto line, BYD of China sold 16,278 of their Yaun compact CUV., 45% increase over this time last year and up from 3 months straight of 13,000+ sales of their whole product line.

BYD delivered in 2017 108,000 plug-in hybrids.

First half of 2018 BYD has sold 71,000 EV auto's, they are expecting over 100,000 to be sold in the second half.

BYD Story

[smk4565]

People don't want small cars, they don't need more in their line ups, so from the consumer standpoint I get not going forward with it.

The bigger story here is the trade wars and tariffs.  Companies are afraid to expand and put forth new investment dollars, which will slow economies and slow job growth.  Because first these 2 cancel a project, then Ford does, then GM does, then VW does, etc  And it becomes a huge ripple effect when they all pull back.

[balthazar]

There are WAY too many models globally, a self-correction not forced by outside conditions would be a good control methodology.