Mercedes Investing $600M in EV Factory Upgrades
Mercedes is shoring up its electric car production, earmarking $600 million towards expanding production capacity for a new compact EV to be named.
The investment will be made to its Haibach, France factory, which will go towards the construction of new sub-facilities, including a body and surface treatment center and assembly areas. It will also look to increase capacity on the same production line used by multiple electric variations for better scalability. At the moment, the Haibach factory is producing the all-electric and gas-powered Smart EQ forth and EQ fortwo cabrio, of which 80,000 units were built last year.
SEE ALSO: Mercedes EQ C Electric Crossover Confirmed for Fall Debut
“20 years ago, we started an exemplary Franco-German project with the production of the smart in Hambach,” said board chairman Dieter Zetsche in a statement. “Now we take the next step, and for the first time in our more than 100-year old history, we bring the production of Mercedes-Benz to France. With the compact EQ model from Hambach, we continue our electric initiative.”
To better compete with Tesla, Mercedes has indicated plans to launch more than 10 electric vehicles over the next four years. This includes the Concept EQA, a 248-mile range EV with plugs recharging capacity, and the EQC, an all-electric SUV. The German automaker has already committed to investing a combined $12.8 billion towards expanding its electric fleet and six battery plants.
A version of this story originally appeared on Hybrid Cars
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