Employees assemble Nissan Altima and Frontier 4-cylinder engines at the Decherd, Tenn., plant.DECHERD, Tenn. – Nissan-Renault’s 4-year-old partnership with Germany’s Daimler AG ramped up significantly last week with two key moves in North America: the opening of a new Infiniti-Mercedes engine plant in Decherd, and announcement of a jointly owned assembly plant to be built in Mexico.
While the collaboration between the automakers has until now been mostly between the Renault brand and Daimler’s Smart brand in Europe, other projects are taking off as the two companies work to expand their businesses using complementary strengths and economies of scale.
For Middle Tennessee, the engine plant that opened Thursday means 400 new jobs for workers in the Decherd-Winchester-Tullahoma area, adding to the 1,600 that Nissan already employs at its 13-year-old Decherd powertrain facility.
On Friday, Nissan and Daimler said they would share the $1.4 billion cost to build a factory in Aguascalientes, Mexico, to make a pair of new small vehicles – an Infiniti and a Mercedes-Benz – that use the same basic architecture. The facility will be adjacent to a pair of Nissan plants already on the site, and will employ 5,700 people.
“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,” Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said. “It also shows how our collaboration, which began in Europe, has become global in scope.”