Delphi is supplying the instrument panel, console, and entire cockpit assembly on the redesigned Mercedes M-class SUV and will provide similar components for the R-class due out later this year.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
This business represents the largest contract Delphi has ever had with Mercedes, although the first generation M-class also had a Delphi developed and manufactured cockpit.
Technologies utilised on these programmes include: sprayed urethane skin, seamless hidden passenger airbag deployment door and thin-walled, long fibreglass injection moulded retainer. Delphi custom builds each cockpit configuration.
The supplier is also responsible for the full wiring harness content. Building and shipping assemblies through a unique manufacturing process jointly developed with Mercedes, each passenger harness is customer specific, with as many as 30,000 different configurations possible.
Delphi custom builds each harness within its Mexico operations to a line-item match of the exact content in every model that rolls down the line at Mercedes’ Tuscaloosa, Alabama, assembly plant. The M-Class start of production marked Delphi’s North American debut of this custom-build process for the customer.
This also eliminates the automaker’s need to stock a myriad of part numbers; the customer-specific nature of the process means there are no part numbers.
