Plant closure marks end of Nissan-Daimler era

NISSAN has announced that it will suspend operations at its Infiniti Powertrain Plant facility in Decherd, Tennessee, from March 2023 pending “future product announcements”.

 

The 29,000 square metre facility is the last to produce engines as part of an earlier Nissan-Renault/Daimler alliance, marking the end of product sharing between the brands.

 

It boasts an annual capacity of 250,000 units but from 2020 produced just 35 per cent of that number, with only 50,000 units produced last year.

 

The decision comes following news that Mercedes-Benz would no longer source four-cylinder engines for its GLE-Class SUV and Sprinter and Metris commercial vans from the Tennessee plant. The 2.0-litre unit was used in a variety of models, including the Infiniti Q50 sold in North American markets.

 

Sources close to the plant, which was opened in 2014 at a cost of $US319 million ($A464m), told Automotive News that the facility’s 400 employees would be reassigned.

 

“The product cycle will end in the course of the next year. Production is running out according to plan and the cooperation with Nissan in Decherd is ending,” Mercedes-Benz spokesperson Andrea Berg told Automotive News.

 

The Infiniti Powertrain Plant facility formed part of a broader industrial partnership between Nissan-Renault/Daimler announced in 2010. The alliance was to share vehicles and powertrain technologies at several facilities globally, including the $US1.4 billion ($A2.1b) COMPAS assembly plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

 

Automotive News reports that the future of the COMPAS is now also uncertain as both Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz revamp their US line-ups individually.

 

The plant, which manufacturers the Mercedes-Benz GLB-Class and Infiniti QX50 and QX55 SUVs, assembled just 98,865 vehicles last year, far short of its 230,000 annual unit capacity. It ceased producing the Mercedes-Benz A-Class in 2020.

 

Automotive News said that both Nissan and Mercedes-Benz declined to comment on the future of the COMPAS plant, but said it was possible the Infiniti Powertrain Plant facility will be repurposed into an EV powertrain plant to support Nissan’s $US18 billion ($A25.9b) electrification push.

 

Nissan plans to launch 15 battery-electric models globally by the end of the decade, including two US-made electric vehicles by 2025.

 

Speaking to the media earlier this year, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance chairperson Jean-Dominique Senard said: “The three member-companies have defined a common roadmap towards 2030, through which it will share investments in future electrification and connectivity projects”.

 

“These are massive investments that none of the three companies could make alone. Together, we are making the difference for a new and global sustainable future; the Alliance will be carbon neutral by 2050.”