Volvo and Mercedes May Partner Up to Create Combustion Engines

With an increasing quantity of automakers heavily investing in electrification, they are consistently searching for ways to slash costs from additional parts of the business in order to fund the electric vehicle push. Geely and Daimler already have teamed up in order to develop a 50:50 joint venture and create the next gen. of electric Smart vehicles, and now it seems as if they may tie the knot even firmer.

Daimler, Mercedes’ parent company, is talking with Geely-owned Volvo in order to collaborate on the creation of combustion engines, according to a report that was published by Automobilwoche. According to a manager from the Swede marque, while talks have been done with Daimler, an end decision hasn’t yet been taken. A spokesperson from the company added that it is too early to detail the future plans of Volvo; however, the company is not ruling out anybody for now.

Daimler also was contacted to weigh in on the matter, yet the spokesperson didn’t share details of the possible new partnership, only stating that the present tie-up is “developing within a positive way.” Geely, as you may recall, increased its stake in Daimler to almost 10 percent. Additionally, the Chinese company owns Lotus, which might mean future Volvo models are going to benefit from a suspension system that is tweaked by the skilled engineers from Norfolk.

Daimler has around a dozen projects with the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, which includes a few small-displacement diesel and gasoline engines powering Mercedes’ compact vehicles, in conjunction with the Navara-based X-Class, factory in Mexico, as well as Twingo / ForFour city cars. Citan’s small van is a Kangoo in disguise, whereas the Infiniti QX30 and Q30 are based heavily on the Mercedes GLA and A-Class.

In recent times, the more important tie-up within the car industry is undoubtedly the FCA-PSA merger — announced only a few years after the latter’s choice to purchase Vauxhall and Opel from GM.

Carolina Coast Collision offers foreign car repair. If you have a Mercedes and need repairs, call us at 910-791-7525.