The chief executives of the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler AG say their companies' partnership is advancing quickly, and the scope of the collaboration is increasingly global.
The French-Japanese-German partnership began in April 2010, with three "pillar projects" primarily focused on Europe. Since then, the portfolio has increased to 10 significant projects, including major initiatives from North America to Japan.
Although it's mostly affecting passenger cars, there is some collaboration when it comes to commercial vehicles. Daimler Trucks Asia's Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp. unit, for instance, will be supplied with Nissan's NV350 Urvan commercial vans to be sold under Mitsubishi Fuso in selected export markets.
This type of strategic supply also has been successfully implemented since early 2013 for light-duty trucks to expand their respective product portfolio into new segments. The Fuso Canter Guts light-duty truck (payload: 2.0 tons) is supplied to Nissan, and the Nissan Atlas F24 light-duty truck (payload 1.5 tons) is supplied to Mitsubishi Fuso. This cross-supply volume initially amounts to about 1,300 units for the Japanese market.
Joint development work is also proceeding on schedule for a new family of shared three- and four-cylinder gasoline engines with turbocharging and direct fuel injection. The engines will make use of the latest technology and will have significantly improved fuel consumption.
