It appears Mercedes-Benz is betting on the economy improving not only here in Tuscaloosa County, where the company's only U.S. plant is located, but in the rest of the nation and world over the next couple of years.
Why else would the German carmaker, which has been building automobiles in Vance since 1997, announce plans to spend $290 million for plant expansion and new high-tech equipment beginning next month?
The expansion, announced last week, will include a 200,000-square-foot addition to the plant's body shop and new equipment and robotics aimed at the construction of the next generation of SUVs made here. New models made in Vance are also a possibility.
'We have built where our market is, and the USA is our strongest market,' Ruediger Schrage, chief financial officer of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, said in making the announcement.
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