Mercedes-Benz US International has celebrated 10 years of production of the Mercedes-Benz M-class at its Tuscaloosa, Alabama, plant.

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“Since our decision to come here, we have invested more than $US1bn and twice expanded our production facilities, DaimlerChrysler chairman Dieter Zetsche underlined.


The company is also marking the milestone with a limited-edition M-class called Edition10.


The original M-Class (much-criticised for its plasticky US-style cabin materials) was the plant’s launch products in 1997. Since then, the M-class has been both updated and redesigned and the R-class and GL-class models have been added to the production schedules.


The plant has so far built over 960,000 units.

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Original production capacity was 65,000 vehicles per year, but $80m was spent in 1998 and 1999 to boost output to around 80,000 units per year.


Another $600m got it ready for the second-generation M-class and the two extra models and led to a doubling of the workforce (4,000) and the production capacity (160,000). The expansion was opened in May 2005.


Tuscaloosa now has two assembly lines, two paint shops, and a body shop and around 30 Tier I suppliers of production materials handy in the state of Alabama.