Renault-Nissan and Daimler to cooperate on new cars

Franco-Japanese Nissan and German giants Daimler form partnership to develop new cars and share engines.
By Andrew English - Telegraph.co.uk

A common replacement for the Renault Twingo, the Smart Fourtwo and a new four-seat Smart model will be the first results of a cooperation and share-swap deal signed by the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler this week.
They will swap a symbolic 3.1 per cent stakeholding in each other to seal the deal, which will see the joint development of small cars as well as diesel and petrol engines.
At the top end of the model ranges Daimler will give Nissan's Infiniti prestige brand access to its four- and six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, but both companies stressed that the deal will not dilute the image of their brands. Infiniti's efforts to launch itself in Europe have been hindered by its lack of turbodiesels.
"Each brand has its own identity and its own kind of products and its own cost and price level," said Carlos Ghosn, Renault-Nissan chief executive. "We need to keep each brand very different from the others."
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