Infiniti’s often discussed future premium compact model will be built at Nissan’s UK plant in Sunderland, Nissan says. It was previously announced that the new Infiniti will “share a platform developed with Mercedes.

The car is one of the outcomes of the partnership between the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler. According to Nissan, the car will “create a further 1,000 jobs at Sunderland and across the UK.” Which is quite a number for a low-volume car. Could it be that Daimler will also move in at Sunderland?  As we learned from the abortive GM/PSA plans, true savings come when you don’t just share the platform, but also the plant.

Time and capacity utilization will tell.

Infiniti’s often discussed future premium compact model will not be built at Magna-Steyr, but “in-house in a European production facility,” Infiniti says in an emailed statement. The car will still “share a platform developed with Mercedes.”

The car was created as part of the partnership between the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler. Infiniti had been looking into third party production at Magna Steyr, but decided to bring production in house. With a lot of capacities sitting idle in Europe, this is a prudent and expected move.

Infiniti says that all design, engineering and development work continues on schedule. It will announce a production location and more product details closer to the start of production.  The “European facility”  does not necessarily mean one of the Renault-Nissan empire, it could also be a Daimler plant. By the same token, the sister Mercedes could also be built at a Renault-Nissan plant. Stay tuned.