As heralded earlier this month, Nissan Motor‘s luxury car unit Infiniti has begun engine assembly at its new Decherd powertrain plant, a collaboration between the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler.
The first engine was a two-litre, turbocharged, petrol I4 developed by Daimler for European-specification versions of Infiniti’s Q50 sedan and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class assembled in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. C-class production there – a first for the plant – began earlier this month.
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At the production start ceremony, Infiniti president Johan de Nysschen said: “The opening of this new facility is the beginning of our manufacturing expansion. Infiniti needs additional capacity to fuel the expected growth which will be driven by our expanding portfolio.
“At the same time, this plant is an excellent demonstration of the strong collaboration we have with Daimler. It will leverage the technologies, expertise and highest level of manufacturing standards from both companies, which, in turn, benefit from the synergy and economies of scale of this joint effort.”
Around 200 new jobs have been added to date, with that number expected to increase to 400 once the plant ramps up to its full 250,000 engine annual capacity.
The Infiniti-Daimler engine factory is in a new building on the same site as Nissan North America’s Decherd powertrain plant. That 1.2m sq ft factory, opened in 1997, builds 1.4m engines a year, employing about 1,500 people. Output ranges from 2.5-litre I4 engines for cars and light trucks assembled eslewhere in Tennesee through 3.5 and four-litre V6s for various Nissan models and the Infiniti QX60 to the 5.6-litre V8 used in large trucks and SUVs. The plant also makes the US-assembled Leaf EV’s motor plus crankshaft forgings and cylinder block castings, and machines blocks, heads and crankshafts.
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By GlobalDataAs well as the engines, the plant turns out 1.4m crankshaft forgings and about 490,000 483,856 cylinder block castings a year.
Construction of the new, ground-up 310,000 sq ft Infiniti-Daimler factory began in May 2012. It incorporates a number of energy efficient design features, such as a heat reflecting white roof and natural daytime lighting through use of a skylight grid.
More Infiniti production expansion is planned. As previously announced, the division later this year will start local assembly of extended wheelbase versions of the Q50 sedan and QX50 crossover in China, for local sale. Next year, Q30 premium build starts at the Nissan UK plant for global sale.
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