- Mercedes will invest 500 million euros in the Hambach plant to produce future compact EQ electric vehicles.
- The Hambach facility currently produces Smart ForTwo since 1997.
- Mercedes will have a production facility in France for the first time in 100 years.
Mercedes-Benz announced the expansion of their electrification strategy with an investment of 500 million euros in the Hamburg manufacturing plant in France. This plant will start manufacturing compact EQ electric vehicles for Mercedes in the coming years. The Hamburg facility was established in 1997 to produce Smart ForTwo.
This would be the first time in the last 100 years that Mercedes will have a production facility in France. The German carmaker has not revealed any official date of commencement but says that “the preparations for the new model in Hambach will start shortly”. The plant will have a new body shop and will use the additional investment to expand the assembly line.
The Hambach plant already produces battery-powered Smart vehicles since 2007. And the Smart electric vehicles are in production at the facility since 2012. The Smart ForTwo coupe and Smart ForTwo Cabrio are currently produced there. This would be the second facility after the Sindelfingen plant in Germany to produce electric Mercedes.
The Three-Pointed Star plans to have at least 10 electric cars by 2022 in its line-up. The carmaker believes the electric cars will account for 15 to 25 per cent of total sales by the middle of the next decade. Starting in 2020, Mercedes’ Smart brand will only have electric powertrains on offer.
