Mercedes are planning to build the C Class in the US
Mercedes is planning to build the C Class at its Alabama plant in the U.S. which currently produces Mercedes GL and ML models.
America is the land of the gas guzzler; and the pick-up; and the huge SUV. But the trials and tribulations of the last year in the car market has seen sales of all these dropping out of bed – none more so than the SUV.
Which means makers – and in particular, importers – of big SUVs have got to look at where the market is going and respond. None more so than Mercedes, which has seen sales of it’s R Class, GL and ML drop by almost half in 2009. That is mainly due to the changing buying patterns in the US, but the weak dollar certainly isn’t helping. The chances are that Mercedes is not even making money on the big SUVs it’s selling, and it certainly wouldn’t on a fully imported C-Class range.
So time for a new attack plan, and it looks as if Mercedes are going to start building the Mercedes C-Class in the US at the very Alabama plant the currently builds the SUVs. Which does make a lot of sense. Currently the only C-Class that gets sold in the US is the V6. But starting to build the C-Class in Alabama would give Mercedes the chance to introduce much more frugal C-Class models in to the States cost-effectively.
The time is probably right to introduce 4-pot ‘Luxury’ cars to the States. Until now Mercedes has been reluctant to do so, believing it would devalue the marque. But those times have surely gone and Mercedes is in a good position – with a plant in Alabama working below capacity – to introduce a much bigger range of Euro C-Class cars.
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