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It was really a milestone at the Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) last Saturday, March 16 , as the company builds on its rich heritage of 71 years of manufacturing in South Africa with the 500, 000th Mercedes-Benz W205 C-Class rolling off the line at the company’s East London Plant just as the company also celebrated 25 years of women on the production line.
The East London Plant is one of four C-Class plants in the world that manufacture the luxury sedan. The 500 000th W205 unit milestone follows the mid-cycle facelift of the W205 model and coincides with the celebration of 25 years of manufacturing the C-Class sedan as well as 25 years of having women on our production lines.
“Since 1994, when the first C-Class model rolled off our assembly line, we have never looked back in producing excellence from this Plant. Producing the 500 000th unit of the W205 model reaffirms our commitment to manufacturing excellence and the positive multiplier effect that our operations have on the economy of East London. This achievement also follows the R10 billion investment into the expansion of the Plant to equip it for the future,” said, Andreas Engling, CEO of Mercedes-Benz South Africa & Executive Director of Manufacturing.
The first customer ready W205 vehicle rolled off the production line on 01 March 2014, marking the beginning of a new era for the six time JD-Power award-winning Plant. Since 2014, the East London Plant has experienced a number of positive developments, such as the steady increase to production volumes with a significant number of units produced for the domestic market, and exports to more than 80 markets around the world.
Additionally, the W205 model enabled the East London Plant to produce several variants of the C-Class, which include the Mercedes-AMG C 43 4MATIC, Mercedes-AMG C 63, Mercedes-AMG C 63 S and the C350 Hybrid.
The 500 000th Mercedes-Benz W205 C-Class is an Obsidian Black, right hand drive automatic C200 full roof sedan which will be exported to the United Kingdom.
Mercedes-Benz South Africa and East London plant
Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the global company, Daimler AG. Established in 1948, MBSA is one of the largest automotive groups in South Africa. The production of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars at the East London plant began in 1958, with the model series of the W121. Today, MBSA manufactures Mercedes-Benz C-Class cars in both left- and right-hand drive for the local and export markets.
MBSA cemented its position as one of the top manufacturing plants in Daimler AG, getting recognition for six years in a row with J.D. Power and Associates (a US-based company) quality awards for vehicles produced at its East London. With more than 4600 employees and a production volume of over 100,000 vehicles in 2018, the East London plant is an important part of the C-Class global production network.
The network includes the Mercedes-Benz plants in Tuscaloosa (USA), BBAC (China), and lead plant in Bremen (Germany). As announced in June 2018, further investments into the expansion of the East London plant for the production of the next generation C-Class constitute R10 billion.
