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Mercedes to invest Euro 500 m in French electric car plant

Mercedes-Benz has announced that it will invest Euro 500 million in the Smart plant in Hambach, France for capacity expansion. The German company also plans to manufacture future electric cars at this facility.

Moving towards electric cars, Mercedes-Benz plans to introduce 10 different electric cars by 2022. These electric cars are expected to contribute about 15-25% of the total cars made by Mercedes-Benz by 2025. Further, the Smart brand is expected to produce only electric cars from 2020.

Mercedes also plans to invest Euro 10 billion for the expansion of its electric car fleet and an electric battery production network across 6 plants including the Smart plant in Hambach and the lead plant in Rastatt, Germany along with plants in Kecskemet, Hungary, the BBAC production site in Beijing, the COMPAS plant in Mexico and Finland's Valmet Automotive.

The Hambach plant is operational since 1997 and makes the Smart brand of cars. Since 2012, the Smart EQ fortwo coupe and the Smart EQ fortwo cabrio are being made here. The investment will include a new body shop and surface treatment plant along with the expansion of assembly facilities and additional infrastructure. At present, the plant claims to being CO2-neutral as it procures all its electricity from renewable sources.

 
 
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