ISLAMABAD/BERLIN: Mercedes will invest billions of dollars in modernizing its plants in China, Hungary, and Germany over the coming years, the magazine Automobilwoche reported, as the vehicle maker prepares to switch to electric vehicles (EV) and cut emissions.
The European Union (EU) has set a goal to halve CO2 emissions per passenger vehicle over their life cycle by the end of that decade compared to 2020 and is seeking agreement on the year 2035 deadline to end the sale of fossil fuel cars.
Mercedes stance
Mercedes said it would be ready to go with electric vehicles by the end of this decade, where market conditions allow.
“We are investing a three-digit million amount per company plant for the run up,” production Joerg Burzer’s manager was quoted as saying by the magazine, adding these investments would be at the plants in Beijing, Rastatt, and Kecskemet.
Burzer said that the carmaker would launch work on the Rastatt plant in the upcoming months and produce the first compact car platform MMA model in 2024. The number of vehicle models produced there will be cut to four from seven.
In addition, Mercedes would invest a low single-digit billion-dollar funds in modernizing the painting systems at its Sindelfingen, Rastatt, and Bremen plants in Germany.
The report said the modernization aims to cut water consumption and energy and the painting system’s reliance on gas, as opposed to carbon-free power.
Automobilwoche said that Mercedes is considering expanding its United States (US) plant in Tuscaloosa, where it can benefit from government subsidies under the previous year’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Burzer said that Mercedes was ready to respond to any further changes in the regulatory environment. Burzer said that “The framework conditions global change again and again; we may have to react to that,”
