Engines for Mercedes C-Class sedans, which will be made in Vance starting in 2014, will be produced at a Nissan factory in Tennessee. Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, said this week that Nissan’s Decherd, Tenn., engine factory will make the four-cylinder, gasoline engines for the C-Class, one of Mercedes top-selling models in the United States.
Mercedes will add the C-Class production to its Vance plant when it rolls out the new generation of the vehicle in two years. The Vance plant is expected to make all the C-Class sedans for the North American market. The C-Class currently is made at Mercedes plants in Germany, China and South Africa and are exported to the United States.
The Decherd factory also will make engines for Nissan’s Infiniti. The Nissan factory is about 50 miles northeast of Huntsville in southern Tennessee. The factory will have the capacity to build 250,000 engines yearly, according to a joint statement from the automakers.
The joint project is part of wide-ranging agreement that Nissan and Daimler AG announced in 2010 to share vehicle and powertrain technologies. This week’s announcement will make the Nissan factory a major automotive supplier for the C-Class. Mercedes began naming its suppliers for the new generation of the C-Class last year and that process is expected to heat up this year in advance of the start of 2014 production.