“You all together made it happen,” Michael Göbel, president & CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, told a roomful of cheering workers, moments before the SUV was unveiled.
The Vance plant will produce electric SUVs for 150 markets around the globe, with roughly two-thirds of the vehicles shipping overseas.
At the same time, electric production has its differences. For one thing, the factory itself has a lower noise level. The electric battery, which basically represents the chassis of the vehicle, weighs about 1,500 pounds. Where a traditional engine needed about 12 bolts to be “married” to the frame, the battery needs three times that amount.
Mercedes employs 4,500 employees and roughly 11,000 in its supply chain. With its latest investments, the automaker has pumped $7 billion into its Alabama operations since production began in 1997. Burzer said if the last three years has taught automakers anything, it’s the importance of being flexible to what the market needs, and what it will allow.