Alliance kills Benz one-tonner

Daimler officials have admitted to killing off a planned one-tonne Mercedes-Benz pick-up.

Planned to be on the market before the end of 2016, sources at the Frankfurt motor show have admitted the one-tonne ute would have been heavily based on Nissan’s next-generation Navara, to the point of sharing its chassis and most of the sheet metal.

The pick-up was to be one of Daimler’s most complete transfers from its alliance with Renault-Nissan, however, the dramatic expansion fell foul of Benz’s demands for a wide range of engine variants.

It’s not all bad news for the world’s well-heeled tool-twirlers, though, because Nissan sources have admitted that Benz’s idea for a semi-premium one-tonne pick-up is almost certain to be adopted up by its in-house premium brand, Infiniti.

Motoring has also learned that in addition to a mid-size ute, Infiniti is considering a larger 1.5-tonne pick-up based on Nissan's full-size Titan to go up against the Ford F-Series and Chevrolet Silverado heavyweights in North America.

Like the Navara-based prestige ute, the enormous Titan-based luxury pick-up was originally conceived as a Mercedes, but the plan fell through because the Japanese car-maker could not manage the engineering and production complexity of the drivetrain options Daimler demanded.

Our sources say Infiniti is considering the full-size pick-up even more seriously than the one-tonner because of its potential in the US, as part the brand's goal of 500,000 annual sales amd 10 per cent of the global premium vehicle market by 2020, by boosting its model range from nine to 14.

Infiniti's upcoming Q50 medium sedan will be followed by the Q30 hatch and QX crossover, which will bring the number of SUVs in its range to five, topped by the Nissan Patrol-based QX80 that arrives in Australia next year.

Infiniti President Johan de Nysschen told Autocar before the Frankfurt show that the brand's new flagship will no longer be an SUV, but a "saloon, coupe or supercar... We won’t have an SUV like it is now".

On the same day he was reported by Auto Express as saying "an Infiniti halo car is important for our future. It should have a strong emotional character and is likely to be a powerful and exciting coupe. I would like to see commercialisation of the Essence concept towards the back end of the decade," adding that production version of the smaller Emerg-e coupe concept was not likely because it was in a declining segment.

While Infiniti's new the 2009 Essence concept was powered by a 323kW twin-turbo V6 hybrid drivetrain, the Japanese brand's first supercar is rumoured to be a hybrid with technical input from Red Bull Racing.

Whatever Infiniti's new range-topper turns out to be, it and the Q30, Q50 and rebadged Q60 and Q70 passenger cars will still be outnumbered in its newly named line-up by SUVs in the QX30, QX50, QX60, QX70 and QX80. Obvious omissions are Q40, QX40 and Q80, which could be an S-Class limousine rival, while a premium pick-up would make 14 models.

For Daimler, the pick-up was just one of its planned shortcuts to get to its 2020 target of doubling its sales to two million vehicles a year. Daimler is not abandoning that target with the culling of the one-tonner though, with sources admitting to 12 all-new models in the pipeline.

Aimed directly at silver-tailed tradesmen, the Mercedes-Benz one-tonner was to have been sold through the brand’s light commercial division and was to carry utility, extended-cab, dual-cab and cab/chassis variants.

The one-tonner was expected to be a strong player in the Australian market, but also in the US and South American markets as well.

Inspired by Volkswagen’s successes with its Amarok, Daimler negotiated with Nissan to use the architecture of the next Navara, complete with its chassis, all-wheel-drive systems and suspension systems.

Benz was to have gone its own way with interior materials and design, though the sheet metal changes were to have been limited to the nose and the badge on the tailgate, sources admitted.

Mercedes engineers had already begun work at bringing the Navara’s NVH levels closer to its own expectations.

However, the one-tonne pick-up has fallen foul of Daimler’s demands that Nissan pre-engineer the commercial vehicle for a wider range of powertrains than Nissan itself had planned to use, according to sources in Japan, while Mercedes-Benz itself admits it would only have worked if it had been allowed to tailor the engines for market demands.

Daimler also added complications by insisting on pre-engineering its version of the Navara for potential hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants, neither of which were in Nissan’s original planning.

While an Infiniti ute might surprise many, an upmarket Navara-based pick-up wouldn’t have been the first entry in the lucrative commercial utility market from Mercedes, which has produced various tray-backed versions of its venerable G-Class, including for the military and passenger versions topped by the G 63 6X6 AMG behemoth (pictured).

Rumours of a Mercedes-Benz utility have circulated quietly within the automotive industry for a number of years, but its development repeatedly struck difficulties and delays. Daimler had initial negotiations with VW to produce a three-pointed star version of the Amarok, but the alliance never gathered momentum.

Daimler and Renault-Nissan have a history of joint-venture projects, some of them proving difficult. The three-star safety score achieved by the Renault Kangoo-based Citan compact van was Daimler’s worst Euro NCAP result since 1997, which created enormous friction between the alliance partners.

Benz was forced to fit the Citan with curtain airbags, delaying the introduction of the belated Vaneo replacement until next year in Australia, and the result impacted on the development of projects such as the utility, with Daimler pushing for more early engineering input in chassis development.

There have been other friction sources, too, with Renault caught in the middle of Daimler’s ongoing fight with the French government over its refusal to use a new, environmentally friendlier air-conditioning refrigerant.

The French government banned sales of effected Mercedes-Benz vehicles, in particular the A-Class, B-Class and SL sports car, and had encouraged the rest of the EU’s member states to follow suite. While Daimler won the subsequent court case, the French government ownership of a significant share of Renault placed the French car-maker in an invidious position.

While there have been mis-steps, there have been other successes. Infiniti’s Q30 concept car for the Frankfurt show is based on the same MFA platform architecture found beneath the Mercedes-Benz A-, B-, CLA- and GLA-Class models. Infiniti’s all-new Q30 hatch will hit global markets from 2015, followed by a crossover version dubbed the QX30.

In a further platform sharing deal between the German and French/Japanese companies, next year’s all-new two- and four-seat smarts (the latter was previewed by the smart ‘fourjoy’ concept at Frankfurt) will share their architecture with Renault’s delayed Twingo.

Production of smart’s new ‘fortwo’ two-seater will begin soon at Daimler’s Hambach plant in France, while the production version of smart’s four-seater fourjoy will be built alongside the new Twingo at Renault’s Novo Mesto factory in Slovenia. Both models will hit Europe in the second half of next year.

Both car-makers used the Frankfurt show to talk up the industrial alliance that was first formed in April 2010 and has now expanded from three major jointly developed projects to 10.

“While our initial collaboration focused strongly on European projects, we are now focusing on synergies in all key markets,” said Renault-Nissan Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn at an annual media briefing on the partnership. “The largest economies of scale are always global.”

Daimler and Renault-Nissan will also commence joint production of Mercedes-Benz four-cylinder petrol engines in Tennessee from mid-2014, for US in the Alabama-built C-Class and new Infiniti models.

The Q50 will be the first Infiniti model powered by a Daimler drivetrain -- in this case a diesel/auto combination – and the two car-makers are also co-developing a new family of three- and four-cylinder turbo-petrol engines.

Daimler, Nissan and Mitsubishi Fuso are also cooperating on a number of commercial truck deals, involving rebadged versions of the Nissan NV350 Urvan and the FUSO Canter Guts for various markets including Japan.

“We will continue to seek out new projects together that make sense for all partners and, most importantly, our customers,” said Daimler CEO and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars Dieter Zetsche.