Two major automobile manufacturers, Daimler and Nissan, will collaborate for the production of the Mercedes-Benz-4-cylinder gasoline engines for Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz models at the powertrain assembly facility owned by Nissan in the state of Tennessee.
The facility will achieve an annual capacity of 250,000 units after the upgrade is completed. Production in the facility is expected to commence by 2014.
This is the first time that Mercedes-Benz engines are being manufactured in the North American Free Trade region. Mercedes-Benz-C-Class engines built at Daimler’s plant in Tuscaloosa will be directly supplied through the facility in Tennessee due to its strategic location and its links to logistics.
According to Dr. Dieter Zetsche who is the Head of Mercedes-Benz cars and Chairman of the Daimler Board of Management the cooperation between the company and Renault will enable it to achieve the production of engines in the NAFTA area through optimum use of economies and synergies.
The powertrain facility was started in 1997 by Nissan. At present, the company manufactures 4-, 6- and 8-cylinder for all the Infiniti and Nissan models that are produced in the US. Cylinder block casting operations and crankshaft forging are also done at the plant. During the year 2011 the company manufactured 580,000 engines within an area of 1.2 million sq ft.
Source: http://www.nissannews.com