The state-of-the-art plant will be located near the Nissan Aguascalientes A2 plant. It will have an initial annual production capacity of more than 230,000 vehicles and will create about 3,600 direct jobs by 2020. Depending on the market development and customer demand, there will be the potential to add additional capacity. Production of Infiniti vehicles will begin in 2017, first Mercedes-Benz vehicles will roll off the line in 2018.

COMPAS is led by an international management team from Daimler and Nissan: Ryoji Kurosawa is Chief Executive Officer (CEO); Uwe Jarosch is Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Glaucio Leite is Chief Quality Officer (CQO).

Kurosawa has more than 30 years’ manufacturing experience at both Nissan and Infiniti. In his last position as General Manager of the Tochigi Plant in Japan, he was in charge of the production and quality of Infiniti, including the Infiniti Q50 flagship sedan.

During more than 40 years at Daimler, Jarosch has completed various and largely international assignments in finance and controlling. In his last position as CFO of the Mercedes-Benz passenger cars business in India, he had a responsible role in the significant expansion of the local production and the sales network in the country.

During 24 years at Daimler, Leite has taken over various functions in production and planning at Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles as well as passenger cars in Brazil and Germany. In his last position, after several project assignments at the passenger car plants in the USA and China, he oversaw preparations for the final assembly of the next-generation E-Class at the Mercedes-Benz Sindelfingen plant in Germany.

The decision-making process of COMPAS is supported by a Board of Directors made up of three executives from each company. The board members from Daimler are: Michael Göbel, Head of Production Compact Cars, Mercedes-Benz Cars; Axel Harries, Head of Quality Management, Mercedes-Benz Cars; and Christian Schulz, Head of Controlling, Mercedes-Benz Cars Operations.The Nissan executives are: Armando Avila, Manufacturing VP, Nissan Mexico; Carlos Servin, Finance VP, Nissan North America; and Takehiro Terai, Total Customer Satisfaction VP, Nissan North America.

As announced in June 2014, Daimler and Infiniti will also cooperate in the development of the next-generation premium compact vehicles for the brands Mercedes-Benz and Infiniti. The two partners will closely collaborate at every stage of the product creation process. Brand identity will be safeguarded as the Mercedes-Benz and Infiniti vehicles will clearly differ from each other in terms of product design, driving characteristics, and specifications.

Daimler and Nissan will also produce the next-generation premium compact cars at other production locations around the world, including Europe and China.