DaimlerChrysler will nearly double production in Alabama, adding another assembly line close to the site where it already builds M-Class sport utility vehicles, auto industry officials and consultants said over the weekend.
The Mercedes-Benz unit of DaimlerChrysler said on August 25 that it would hold a news conference on August 28 in Tuscaloosa, AL, the nearest large city to its sport/utility vehicle factory in Vance. The planned construction project is the latest sign that Alabama’s auto industry is growing. Honda has just begun building a minivan factory near Vance, too.
DaimlerChrysler declined to comment on what the factory would produce. But auto industry consultants working for automakers and auto parts suppliers said that the company would make a so- called cross-over vehicle that would combine the features of a minivan and the M-Class sport/utility vehicle.
Whether the planned Mercedes project represents a new assembly plant or an expansion of the existing one will likely be the subject of some debate. State officials in Alabama began praising the project on Friday as a new plant. But there is no consensus among automakers over whether adding a second assembly line represents a second plant or an expansion of the existing one.
The Birmingham News reported that Mercedes would receive $150 million in state incentives for the new operation and that it would create 1,750 jobs. Mercedes received $235 million in incentives for the existing factory.