Mercedes And Renault Pickups Will Be Based On NP300 Navara, Built By Nissan

Mercedes-Benz and Renault have confirmed that their upcoming 1-ton pickup trucks will be jointly developed as part of the partnership between Daimler AG and Renault-Nissan Alliance.

The new Mercedes-Benz pickup will share some of its architecture with the all-new Nissan NP300 Navara, but will be engineered and designed by Daimler to meet the specific needs of its customers in Europe, Australia, South Africa and Latin America.

Mercedes-Benz stresses that the vehicle will have all of the brand’s distinctive characteristics and features.

The Mercedes-Benz pickup truck will be built by Nissan at its plants in Cordoba, Argentina, and Barcelona, Spain along with the Nissan NP300 and the upcoming Renault 1-ton truck.

The trucks built in Argentina will be destined for Latin American markets, while those made in Europe will remain in the region. Mercedes-Benz said that production of its truck will start at both plants before the end of the decade.

Besides the pickup truck announcement, Daimler and Renault-Nissan also said that the EV versions of the new Smart ForTwo and ForFour will be fitted with an electric motor built by Renault at its Cléon plant in France, the same one used in the Renault Zoe. The battery of the new Smart EVs will be produced by the Daimler subsidiary, “Deutsche ACCUmotive,” in Kamenz, Germany. The battery-powered Smart ForTwo and ForFour will go on sale in late 2016.

Launched in April 2010, the Daimler-Alliance partnership was originally limited to three projects, primarily in Europe. Since then, the combined portfolio shared between the partners has more than quadrupled to 13 projects in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Common projects also include the manufacturing of the next-generation premium compact vehicles for Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz at a new jointly owned assembly plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico, as well as the launch of the Infiniti Q30 hatchback which shares components of Daimler’s compact-car architecture.

Note: Official Mercedes-Benz pickup rendering and Renault Alaskan Concept pictured