Renault-Nissan and Daimler Break Ground on Mexico Manufacturing Plant

One year after announcing it, Renault-Nissan and Daimler break ground today on a manufacturing joint-venture plant in Mexico.

The Cooperation Manufacturing Plant Aguascalientes, or COMPAS, is a 50/50 JV-owned plant that will assemble Mercedes-Benz and Infiniti premium compact vehicles.

The plant will be Mercedes’ first in Mexico, while Nissan has a long history of manufacturing in the country. This will be the Japanese automaker’s third vehicle-assembly plant in Aguascalientes and fourth in Mexico.

Aguascalientes 1 opened in 1982 and Aguascalientes 2 opened just two years ago. Nissan also operates a plant in Cuernavaca.

Renault-Nissan and Daimler are investing $1 billion in the COMPAS JV, which will have an initial production capacity of more than 230,000 vehicles annually, Nissan says, adding there is the potential to add capacity.

It is estimated the plant will create some 3,600 direct jobs by 2020, in addition to 12,000 indirect jobs with the local supply base.

Infiniti models will be the first to enter production, in 2017, while output of Mercedes models will commence in 2018.

Vehicles built at the plant, expected to be the Mercedes CLA, A-Class and B-Class and a new Infiniti small CUV, the QX30, will be underpinned by Daimler’s MFA2 platform.

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