Rumors have been circulating for the past month about whether Mercedes-Benz would move production of their CLA Class to Mexico, most likely to a plant run by Mercedes’ alliance partner Nissan.
The move would make quite a bit of sense for Mercedes. Infiniti, Nissan’s luxury brand, is getting ready to launch a compact car that’s based on the new Mercedes CLA (sharing the CLA’s framework), and even though Nissan has yet to confirm that production will be built anywhere except Britain’s Nissan plant, Mexico would be an ideal location for the Alliance partners.
So why would Mercedes make a run for the border? The list of benefits for Mercedes is long and includes, among other things, access to an extensive infrastructure that’s already in place, extremely competitive cost structures, and the benefit of U.S. and Mexico’s free trade agreement, saving Mercedes a significantly large amount of cash. It’s the same reason other luxury brands are considering moving vehicle production to Mexico, such as Audi with their Q5 and BMW with their 3-Series.
Mercedes-Benz CEO Dr. Dieter Zetsche explained to Automotive News that there will be no decision on moving the CLA’s production to Nissan’s plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico until the first part of next year, adding that the if the move was approved, it would not be until 2018. The move would likely come in time for a revised version of the CLA to be launched.
