New Mercedes A Class: Production increased to meet demand

With over 70,000 orders already in the pipeline for the new Mercedes A Class, Mercedes are increasing production to meet demand.

[nggallery id=983 template=customlinks]

If anything demonstrates the ongoing trend for downsizing in cars, the news that Mercedes are having to increase production of the new A Class to cope with the order book they already have does it convincingly.

The increase in production at Mercedes plant in Rastatt, Germany, means adding a third shift to effectively increase production by almost 50 per cent and make a dent in the 70k plus orders Mercedes already has for the new A Class.

That’s in stark contrast to the recent news that Mercedes is having to slash production of the S Class as sales falter, partly due to a new S Class in the pipeline for 2013 but also because buyers are falling in love with more compact offerings.

The latest increase in production for the new A Class comes on top of the news that Mercedes has outsourced some A Class production to Valmet – which will build 100,000 A Class models over the next year – and all this before we start to get the additional A Class models coming on stream like the A45 AMG, Mercedes CLA (the baby CLS) and the Mercedes GLA SUV.

The new Mercedes A Class looks like it’s going to power Mercedes-Benz on to its target of being the world’s biggest premium car maker all on its own.