Mercedes-Benz and the Renault-Nissan alliance have given confirmation on collaborating for two more powertrain projects. This news comes on the sidelines of the world famous Paris Motor Show. The projects include development of a petrol engine and an automatic transmission. The partnership grants license to Nissan to manufacture the transmissions for Infiniti and its own vehicles from 2016 onwards. This collaboration will yield to reduction in development costs.
The partners would together develop and manufacture these new engines which would debut in Mercedes-Benz, Renault and Nissan vehicles from the year 2016. Out of the two new projects, the first one is related to developing a 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine family with better fuel economy and lower emissions. The second one is related to a new automatic transmission that would feature the ‘start and stop’ and ‘park and shift by wire’ technologies.
As mentioned earlier, the partnership is an old one and the two companies have expressed their happiness on achieving a milestone already as the first vehicles and engines from this partnership have already hit the roads. Few of the original Pillar Projects have been accomplished and the rest are on track. The duo are keen at finding more areas of collaboration and bring in enhanced products in the future. Expect the 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine to find its way into the next generation A-Class and B-Class.