Workers at the Tuscaloosa Mercedes plant have a reason to rejoice: C-Class production is being added to the plant.
With the race for luxury sales in the U.S. intensifying, Mercedes-Benz is expanding production at the Daimler AG assembly plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, by adding production of its new C-Class sedan at the plant.
It is the first of two new products that will be added to the plant’s production lines. A new compact SUV, which the company showed off at the Auto China show in April, will be built at the plant sometime next year.
Daimer AG Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche said Mercedes-Benz sees good prospects in the U.S. market and is expanding the local production capacities in the country.
“We are consistently seeing record sales in the USA. By launching the new C-Class we are setting new standards in our biggest sales market,” Zetsche said during a visit to Tuscaloosa. Mercedes-Benz is now locked in an intense battle for luxury-sales leadership in the U.S. with archrival BMW and Lexus, Toyota’s luxury brand, which is undergoing a major rejuvenation.
Unit sales of Mercedes-Benz in the U.S. were up by 8.2% to 205,894 vehicles in the first eight months of the year and the Mercedes-Benz brand set a new record in August, Zetsche said.
The Mercedes-Benz C-Class will now also be produced at the maker's U.S. plant in Alabama.
The Tuscaloosa plant has assembled more than 2 million vehicles since it started production in 1997 with the Mercedes-Benz M-Class. The maker later added the GL-Class and R-Class sport-utes.
“Our decision to go to Tuscaloosa provided the initial spark for the settlement of the automotive industry in Alabama,” said Zetsche, who noted one of every five Mercedes-Benz built is sold in the U.S. “Thus, according to the current status, we have created 3,400 direct new jobs at the location and are in a real win-win situation.”
(Mercedes downsizes with new AMG engine. For more, Click Here.)
The U.S. market has become even more important to Mercedes-Benz since it has fallen behind rivals, such as BMW and Audi, in the booming Chinese market. With a unit sales volume of 312,534 vehicles, the U.S. was the biggest sales market for Mercedes-Benz in 2013.
(Click Here for details on future collaboration between Tesla and Toyota.)
“This year we are expecting market growth in the USA of around 5% to 16.4 million units for passenger cars and SUVs. We also expect the premium market to continue to develop more strongly than the overall market. We want to profit over-proportionately from this. Our new models will help,” said Zetsche.
(To see more about Jaguar’s plans for the new XE sedan, Click Here.)
Utilizing the Alabama facility is a key component in the company’s plans to keep its lead in the luxury sales race in the U.S.
“The local production will enable us to supply the U.S. market more quickly and flexibly. We will lower logistics costs and safeguard ourselves better against exchange rate fluctuations through ‘natural hedging,'” said Markus Schaefer, member of the Divisional Board of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Production & Supply Chain Management.