Chapter 11-bound Delphi Corp has announced that DaimlerChrysler awarded the company full responsibility for cockpit module design and build responsibility on the new Mercedes GL-Class full-size sport utility vehicle (SUV).
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The all-wheel drive vehicle recently made its debut at the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Mich. and is scheduled to launch in the U.S. and Europe later this year.
Similar to the content Delphi supplies to DaimlerChrysler’s M-Class SUV and the R-Class wagon, the instrument panel and console are manufactured in Delphi’s Gadsden, Ala. plant and the entire cockpit assembly is performed at Delphi’s Cottondale, Ala. facility. Both operations are in close proximity to Mercedes’ Tuscaloosa, Ala. vehicle assembly plant where the GL-Class will be built alongside the M- and R-Class models.
“On the M- and R-Class vehicles, we worked closely with Mercedes all the way from the early stages of design to the final details of the cockpit assembly. Winning the contract to supply the GL-Class in the same fashion is a vote of confidence that validates our performance with this key customer and puts Delphi’s mark on the interior of this impressive vehicle,” Lon Offenbacher, business line executive, cockpits and interior systems, Delphi Thermal & Interior, said.
The GL-Class instrument panel will come in three different colour variations with numerous wood options and an integral sewn passenger airbag seam.
As with its support of the Mercedes-Benz M-Class and R-Class vehicles, Delphi is also providing the full wiring harness content on the new GL through a unique custom-build manufacturing process developed with the automaker.
“This process allows Mercedes-Benz to do away with the need to stock multiple part numbers, because with every harness built specifically to match an ordered vehicle, there are essentially no part numbers,” Raul Cuellar, Mexico West manufacturing director for Delphi Packard Electric, said of the process, which marked its North American debut on the recently redesigned M- Class sport-utility vehicle.
