We learned recently that Mercedes Benz will use China’s Geely manufacture to make the CLA 2026 engine. This isn’t a huge departure as TunedMercedes members on facebook.com/groups/TunedMercedes have pointed out that the current engine is made by Nissan Renault.
I am not sure how to feel about this, and I’m not sure we will have a definitive answer until time has passed. I would not be opposed to Mercedes having an open source engine design that chinese manufactures use to build their engines, however, it must be said that many people choose to buy luxury items from old world europe because of a perceived quality. For example I doubt rolex will be seriously challenged for market position by a chinese manufacture.
And I guess it would also shock some people to know that Geely parent is the largest single shareholder of Mercedes Group and also operates joint ventures with Lotus and has a stake in Volvo Polestar as well.
