Nissan Outlines Shared-Platform Plan

The new luxury-vehicle platform being co-developed by Nissan Motor Co. and Daimler AG will be used by the Japanese company's Infiniti brand to carry four models, according to unit President Johan de Nysschen.

He tells Bloomberg News the first car to use the chassis will debut in 2017. Daimler and the Nissan-Renault alliance have been partnering on city cars and commercial vans since 2001.

Infiniti moved its headquarters from Japan to Hong Kong in 2012 and has embarked on a plan since then to move much of its production outside Japan.

Nysschen told reporters at the Detroit auto show that Nissan will probably decide by the end of March whether to build a second North American assembly plant in Mexico or the U.S. The company's existing factory in Smyrna, Tenn., makes Infiniti's QX60 crossover along with Nissan-branded vehicles.

Meanwhile, Infiniti will begin assembling its new compact Q30 sedan at a factory under construction in Sunderland, England, next year. The car will use Daimler's modular front architecture, or MFA, small-car platform. The same platform carries Mercedes-Benz A- and B-Class sedans and the CLA sport sedan.

Infiniti also is preparing to launch production of two models long-wheelbase versions of its Q50 sedan and QX50 crossover vehicle at Nissan's assembly plant in Xiangyang, China. Nysschen expects China to become the brand's largest market before 2020.