CLEON, France -- Renault says its first V-6 diesel engine is a landmark achievement in its alliance with Nissan, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2009.

"If this engine exists, it's because of the alliance," said Jacques Prost, Renault's senior vice president powertrain engineering.

Renault is equipping the upper-medium Laguna range with the 235hp 3.0-liter powerplant. The engine was jointly developed in a €180 million project with Nissan.

Nissan split the engine's development costs equally with Renault. The Japanese carmaker plans to use about 75 percent of all V-6 production, mainly in its Infiniti luxury brand in Europe.

"Neither of us would have been able to do this engine alone, but together it was possible," Prost said during a tour of the factory in Cleon, northern France, where the V-6 is built.

Nissan is expected to invest up to €120 million to adapt the V-6 to use on its cars, including on the Infiniti range starting in 2010, said Renault's project director Christian Demazure.

Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has said Infiniti's long-term future in the competitive European luxury sector will require a high-performance diesel engine.

More than 90 percent of Europe's premium SUVs have diesel engines, a market reality that has even forced Porsche to announce that it will equip its premium Cayenne SUV with an Audi-produced diesel starting next month.

"Having this new V-6 diesel engine is a key part of the Infiniti launch in Europe," said Malo Le Masson, Nissan's European product strategy and advance planning manager.

Nissan will also use the V-6 diesel -- code-named V9X -- starting in 2010 on the Pathfinder large SUV and the Navara pickup in Europe as well as on the Maxima large sedan in the US.

Ramping up

Renault is expected to put the engine in the large sedan replacement for its Vel Satis model, which sources say could be a rebadged large sedan now under development at its Korean subsidiary, Renault Samsung.

Renault is experienced in producing diesels and its engineers did most of the design work on the V-6, which is designed from its 2.0-liter diesel engine. Nissan contributed its expertise in V-6 architecture.

Michel Gornet, Renault's head of manufacturing and logistics, said the Cleon factory was chosen to build the V-6 because of its location between Nissan's Japanese and North American factories, as well because it is in the middle of Renault's European manufacturing base.

In 2007, the factory produced more than 740,000 engines and 783,000 transmissions for Renault, Nissan and other carmakers. It can produce up to 10,000 V-6 engines annually, plant manager Philippe Nottez said.

In the current ramping-up period, small, 13-worker teams are producing about 25 of the V-6 engines per-week, Nottez said. With sales of the Laguna still running below projection, the engine could remain a niche product for Renault in 2009. Nottez said output should increase to about 100 engines per-week during the first half of 2009 but said production "will largely depend on Laguna sales."