Big investment from Daimler on Alabama SUV plant

The plant will be looking for 300 new employees because of the expansion.

Daimler (OTCPK:DDAIF) says it will invest $1.3B to expand and improve production at its plant in Alabama. As part of the latest expansion, Mercedes will add a body shop where it’s most technologically advanced SUVs will be assembled, according to the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama. To date, Mercedes-Benz has made a $4.5 billion capital investment in the Tuscaloosa operations. Today, workers there build the GLE SUV, which used to be called the M-Class, as well as the GL-Class SUV, C-Class sedan and GLE Coupe.

Mercedes-Benz confirmed earlier in the year that it was working on a pickup truck, though whether or not the vehicle will make it to the United States is still up in the air.

While Weber remained quite coy on detailing the auto , he did suggest that it could feature some of the aerodynamic elements found on the Concept IAA vehicle introduced by Mercedes-Benz at the show.

“In the next years we invest $1.3 billion into the expansion of our SUV production and turn the Mercedes-Benz plant Tuscaloosa into a high-tech location”, said Markus Schäfer, Member of the Divisional Board Mercedes-Benz Cars, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management.

The increased use of computing power in vehicles has sparked fears that carmakers could suffer the same fate as some computer manufacturers, who became dependent on outside companies to write an operating system – a step which saw software makers eventually harvest most of the profits. This includes the central functions of planning, logistics and quality.

Mercedes began producing vehicles in Tuscaloosa County in 1997.