A fresh report suggests Mercedes-Benz is considering scrapping production of its C-Class in the United States, leading to speculation the German firm’s plant in South Africa could pick up the slack.
The Stuttgart-based firm is mulling the end of C-Class sedan production in the US (despite having produced the model there for only the past five years), with a plan to build more SUVs instead.
It quotes industry forecaster LMC Automotive as saying production of the C-Class sedan in Alabama will cease in the final quarter of 2020.
“The SUV has really expanded from a consumer standpoint,” said Jeff Schuster, president of global forecasting at LMC. “That’s where the volume is; that’s where the future is.”
This could leave the door open for the automaker’s East London plant to increase its output (it apparently has 25% production capacity available), since the South African operation already produces the vehicle in right- and left-hand-drive form.
In addition to Alabama and East London, the C-Class is built in Bremen (Germany) and Beijing (China).
In June 2018, Mercedes-Benz announced the investment of an additional €600-million in the brand’s facilities in East London, effectively confirming the next generation of the C-Class would be built in SA. And in March 2019, the 500 000th W205-generation C-Class rolled off the assembly line at its East London plant.
