Nissan-Renault to develop vehicles on Common Module Family

Nissan-Renault alliance has announced the introduction of an all-new Common Module Family (CMF) architecture, which will help the alliance to use this engineering architecture to develop different vehicles. This architecture covers Renault-Nissan alliance vehicles, from one or more segments, based on the assembly of compatible Big Modules: engine bay, cockpit, front underbody, rear underbody and electrical/electronic architecture.

According to the company, a CMF is not a platform, as it can involve several platforms. While a platform is a horizontal segmentation, a CMF is a cross-sector concept. This architecture will help to develop different types of vehicles from different segments. The concept is to increase the modules, common to several platforms with a view to standardize components and increase the number of vehicles per platform. CMF will gradually be extended to Renault and Nissan ranges between 2013 and 2020. CMF will be first applied to the compact and large car segments, then to be followed by models in other segments.

CMF architecture for the compact and large car segments will include 1.6 million vehicles per year and 14 models - 11 Renault group + 3 Nissan. While the first Nissan vehicles based on CMF will be released in late 2013: replacement for Rogue, Qashqai and X-Trail, the first Renault vehicles will be released in late 2014: replacement for Espace, Scenic and Laguna. CMF generates economies of scale and lowers costs within the Alliance to meet client demands for product diversity. It will create an "Alliance parts bank" that is just the right size for a varied product range as close as possible to customer needs.

CMF will reduce the cost by 20-30 per cent on component purchasing, while a cost reduction in investment on 30-40 per cent in product + process engineering. Compared with the savings achieved by commonalisation on the B platform (which was originally intended for Modus and Clio for Renault and Micra for Nissan), CMF generates economies of scale through the unprecedented coverage offered by the Alliance in terms of number of vehicles and geographical regions.