THE Renault Trafic/Vauxhall Vivaro, the new light van being launched this summer under an agreement between Renault and Vauxhall, will be rebadged as a Nissan in Europe in the second half of 2002. Renault took over 36.8% of ailing Nissan Motor in 1999 and news of new joint ventures has been long expected.

Last week, the setting up of a new joint Renault/Nissan purchasing organisation was announced, which will provide additional savings on common projects. This week it was revealed that the Trafic/Vivaro will be built in Nissan's Barcelona factory in addition to Vauxhall's Luton plant. Some 64,000 units a year will roll off the production line in Spain on top of the 86,000 planned for Luton. The Nissan will differentiate from its brothers by a new grille, front indicators and seats, but will carry a Nissan badge. The van will be sold and serviced by the Nissan network.

A spokesman for Nissan said: 'Within the framework of the Renault/Nissan alliance, the cross-badging policy in Europe will be limited to the LCV range. For the future, Renault and Nissan are studying other clearly differentiated LCV models based on common platforms.'