Nissan To Suspend Key Project With Daimler

Partnerships need to be beneficial for all parties involved. Reuters has reported that internal sources say Nissan is halting the joint development of luxury cars with Mercedes-Benz for the time being as their luxury brand, Infiniti, hasn't been performing as well as they've hoped. The MFA2 platform was jointly funded by the two companies, but the unrealistic targets set by Infiniti for product volume meant that they could not reach an agreement on the deal.

The two companies have been working together for six years now, but changes in poltical and economic climates as well as unexpected results have seen the conditions change greatly. Some internal sources have said that part of the collapse of this deal can be attributed to Trump's intent on penalizing Mexican imports; the two companies have a shared factory in Mexico where they intended to produce this platform, and having high taxation would heavily hurt sales.

But the more pressing matter is that Infiniti is not doing as well globally as they hoped, especially given their performance in the mid-to-late 2000s. Despite a record sales figure of 230,000 cars globally through 2016, it simply isn't enough to justify the introduction of the MFA2 platform. Their last step forward was the adapting of Mercedes-Benz' A-Class platform for use in the Q30 and QX30, although their planned Q40 and other future Mercedes-Benz based Infinitis have been put on hold indefinitely. The cost to adapt Mercedes-Benz products and technologies has become obstructively high for Infiniti, meaning that they would no longer be competitive in the luxury car market. 

But beyond this partnership, the Renault-Nissan Alliance has plenty of other deals to work through. Their acquisition of Mitsubishi Motors is also going to lead some interesting shared products, and the other joint-ventures between Mercedes-Benz and Infiniti will remain. Even internally, Infiniti has some great new engines and technology to put into place with their latest and greatest products- and hopefully it will help to push sales back up to their expected levels.