Future Nissan vehicles will all be built on the same key building blocks as part of the company’s Common Module Family (CMF) architecture. The chassis technology will reportedly allowup to 80 percent of its parts to be shared between all new Nissan vehicles, and should first debut in 2013.
Nissan isn’t the only company to think of an adaptable platform; Volkswagen Group recently announced MQB, which will allow the company to stretch or shrink one basic chassis to accommodate a wide range of vehicles. Doing so helps cut development costs and reduces the number of different components needed for research, development, and manufacturing vehicles.
The Nissan CMF platform consists of what the Japanese automaker refers to as the “4+1 Big Module” strategy. There are four distinct components to each vehicle: the engine compartment, front chassis/sub frame, the cabin, and the rear chassis. Each of those has several options allowing Nissan to build minivans, SUVs, sedans, or hatchbacks. The engine compartment could have a high or low hood position; the cabin is offered with low, medium, and high seating positions; and the front and rear chassis sections are available in heavy, medium, or lightweight forms.
In addition to helping the company reduce costs and manufacturing complexities, Nissan says the CMF architecture will allow it to launch new vehicles more quickly, and to spread new technologies throughout its product line more easily. The CMF system will reportedly let Nissan shares parts between 1.6 million vehicles globally, up from the 200,000 Nissan vehicles that currently shared parts.
CMF is key to the Nissan Power 88 business plan, which will see Nissan launch a new vehicle every six months through 2016. The ultimate goal of Power 88 is to expand Nissan’s market share to 92 percent of all new-car markets, with a claimed 51 new vehicles and 90 new technologies to debut by 2016. We wouldn’t be too surprised if the new X-Trail, which is previewed by the Hi-Cross concept, may be the first to adopt the architecture in 2013.
Sources: Nissan, Reuters
