Mercedes-Benz Cars is taking the next step in its electric offensive: The Mercedes-Benz Sindelfingen plant will produce electric vehicles of the new product brand EQ, according to an agreement the company and works council have signed after intensive negotiations.
“The Sindelfingen site plays an important role in the electric offensive of Mercedes-Benz Cars and is being advanced into a competence center for EV of the upper range and luxury class,” says Markus Schäfer, Member of the Divisional Board of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Production and Supply Chain Management. The new generation of electric vehicles will be based on an architecture developed specifically for battery-electric models, which is scalable in every respect and usable across all models. It is suitable for all model series as well as sub-models, such as SUVs, saloons and coupés. Wheelbase and track are variable.
The agreement between the company and the works council further allocates the production of the next generation E-Class to the Sindelfingen plant. In this context, Sindelfingen will be appointed as lead plant for the S- and E-Class production within the global production network of Mercedes-Benz Cars.
Ergun Lümali, Chairman of the Works Council Mercedes-Benz Sindelfingen plant: “It is very important for the works council and the employees at the site in Sindelfingen to integrate electric vehicles into the series production of conventional vehicles. The agreement is another crucial milestone for the plant´s further developement as a competence centre for innovation and technology. It is also curcial that we were able to secure the production capacity at the site. This agreement ensures the future of the Sindelfingen team, which convinces every day with its performance and its high flexibility.”
Already in 2014, the plant management and works council reached an agreement for competitiveness and future development – the so called future plan. “Regarding to electromobility, we now create new perspectives for the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen and create a future for our traditional site with an age of more than 100 years. With our highly motivated team, we will reach new benchmarks for electric mobility in the upper range and luxury class“, said Michael Bauer, Site Manager Mercedes-Benz Sindelfingen plant.
To further improve workforce flexibility and increase efficiency in production the company and the works council decided to create innovative working schemes. A comprehensive qualification program will prepare employees for the integration of new electric vehicles in series production. In addition, the employment of 125 temporary workers has been prolonged for another year.
Electric Offensive by Mercedes-Benz Cars
Mercedes-Benz Cars is consolidating all activities in connection with electric mobility under the new product brand EQ, and the Concept EQ gives a clear outlook onto a completely new generation of vehicles. Mercedes-Benz Cars plans to launch more than ten electric vehicles by 2025: in all segments from smart to large SUVs. The company assumes that the proportion of electric vehicles in the total unit sales of Mercedes-Benz will be between 15 and 25 percent. This is dependent on on the development of infrastructure and client preferences. The EQ product brand is an elementary component of the corporate strategy for the mobility of the future, which is summarized under the acronym CASE. The four letters stand for the strategic pillars of connectivity, autonomous driving, flexible use and electric drive, which Daimler is systematically developing and intelligently linking.
About the Mercedes-Benz Plant in Sindelfingen
The Mercedes-Benz Sindelfingen plant is the most traditional vehicle plant of Daimler and the center of excellence for passenger cars of the upper range and luxury class in the global production network of Mercedes-Benz Cars. Together with the central production organisation for Mercedes-Benz Cars, the plant employs more than 25,000 people. Mercedes-Benz manufactures the E-Class (sedan and T-model), the CLS and the CLS Shooting Brake, the S-Class (sedan, coupe and convertible), the Mercedes-Maybach and the Mercedes-AMG GT at the site. In Sindelfingen’s Mercedes-Benz customer center, around 200 vehicles are delivered every day.
