Daimler invests 600 millions in the expansion of Mercedes-Benz Rastatt plant

Daimler will be investing 600 million euros on the augmentation of Mercedes-Benz’s Rastatt manufacturing unit in Germany, which is the carmaker’s core for its compact vehicle production. An additional 800 million euros bill is what will be the result of Daimler’s investment on a new factory in Kecskemét, Hungary, raising the total investment costs to around 1.4 billion euros.

Daimler AG’s Board of Management chairman and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Dr. Dieter Zetsche, says about this project that “with this significant investment we are defining our future in the compact car segment and safeguard the plant Rastatt in the long term”. Regarding the Rastatt plant’s expansion, the Baden-Württemberg finance minister Willi Stächele added that “it is also a signal to continue to invest particularly in times of crisis, thus maintaining and creating technology jobs for the future”.

Mercedes-Benz plans on expanding its offer on the compact vehicle segment by raising its current two-model product lineup to a next generation of four different models. It is expected for these new-generation cars to start being produced at Rastatt by the end of 2011 and then take the place the current A and B class models.