Mercedes-Benz to get Nissan Navara-based pickup

The Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler AG have just announced a joint venture in the form of a pickup truck. Together, Nissan and Daimler will develop a 1-ton pickup truck for Mercedes-Benz.

Mercedes-Benz recently announced its entry into this segment, and the pickup will share some architecture with the all-new Nissan “NP300” Navara but it will be engineered and designed by Daimler to “meet the specific needs of its customers.” The vehicle will have all of Mercedes Benz’s “distinctive characteristics and features.”

The pickup will feature a double cab and will be targeted both at personal-use and commercial customers. The primary target markets for the truck are Europe, Australia, South Africa and Latin America.

The latest iteration Nissan’s Navara was launched in June 2014 and is currently produced in Thailand and Mexico.

Nissan and Renault are already developing a 1-ton pickup truck for Renault which will also share some common architecture with the Nissan NP300. The truck, which will have a distinctive Renault design, is Renault’s first 1-ton pickup truck as well. Production of Renault’s 1-ton truck will begin in 2016 at Nissan’s plant in Mexico.

The Mercedes-Benz 1-ton pickup truck will be built by Nissan at the Renault plant in Argentina, alongside the Nissan NP300 and the Renault 1-ton truck, for Latin America. The three trucks will also be built in the Nissan plant in Spain for other markets. Production of the trucks at the two plants will start by the end of the decade.

The joint pickup project is the latest collaboration in the strategic partnership between Mercedes-Benz and Renault-Nissan since 2010, one of whose past results have included the Mercedes-Benz C-Class’ 2.0-litre turbo engine appearing in the Infiniti Q50.