Ghosn says Nissan is not Mercedes' only pickup option

NEW YORK -- Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn says global partner Daimler AG has plenty of options for sourcing the Mercedes-Benz pickup it is planning to introduce by 2020.

And they may or may not include a Nissan factory.

“I don’t want anybody to think that because they announced a pickup truck, they have to make it with us. Not at all,” Ghosn said Thursday, speaking with reporters during the New York auto show. “They are completely free to do it by themselves, to do it with somebody else, etc., and also, or to do it with us.”

Mercedes plans to target pickup sales in European, Latin American, Australian and South African markets.

Ghosn declined to say whether Nissan and Daimler are discussing the possibility of building the Mercedes pickup at a Nissan assembly plant.

Ghosn and Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche have a growing list of projects the companies are jointly working on, ranging from vehicle development, small-car sourcing, joint-venture factories in Tennessee and Mexico, and many projects the two have not yet disclosed.

Ghosn said that all future projects are “on the table” between Daimler and the Renault-Nissan Alliance to consider executing in partnership.

“Dieter announced that Daimler is going to go into the pickup truck. Good. That’s it. There’s no more information,” Ghosn added, dismissing press speculation about a possible Nissan role.

“Is this something that can eventually be on the table? I told you, everything is on the table between us.

“Now, not everything is decided positively. From time to time, for whatever reason, one says no, and everything stops. And nobody feels obligated to collaborate with the other partner.”

Nissan may build the Daimler-designed pickup based on the Nissan Navara platform,  with Daimler providing technology including four- and six-cylinder powertrains, The Wall Street Journal reported this week, quoting sources familiar with the matter.

Nissan builds the full-size Titan pickup in Canton, Miss., and is preparing to launch a redesigned version of the truck with a diesel engine later this year. But the truck is sold in North America only, and Mercedes is planning non-U.S. markets with its pickup, to be developed by the company’s commercial truck unit.

It has proved extremely difficult for Nissan and Toyota Motor Corp. to make significant headway in the U.S. with large pickups, a segment long dominated by the Detroit 3.

Import brands have been more successful in the U.S. midsize truck segment. And Nissan’s midsize Frontier, also built in Mississippi, is sold in multiple markets around the world and manufactured in multiple plants.

It is not yet clear whether Daimler even intends to offer its proposed pickup in the U.S. Other automakers, including Volkswagen and Mitsubishi, offer pickups in markets outside Detroit 3-dominated North America.

“For the moment,” Ghosn said, “there is no decision. A decision will be done by them eventually. So you’re going to have to wait.”