Mercedes celebrates roll-out of new model bound for Australia

The first locally produced Mercedes-AMG C63 V8, which is destined for the Australian market, rolled off the production line at the Mercedes-Benz South Africa production plant in East London on Wednesday.

Last year the company announced that three Mercedes-AMG models will be manufactured in East London for export and local sales and this week employees who participated in the ramp-up to series production celebrated the achievement.

The integration of the marque’s three new models (Mercedes-AMG C43 4MATIC, Mercedes-AMG C63 and Mercedes-AMG C63 S), was smooth with absolute minimal interruption to current C-Class production at the East London plant. More than 1700 Mercedes-AMG C43 units have already been exported as part of the normal export plan from the plant, which again reached record production levels in 2017 with an output of more than 115000 C-Class units. Over 90% of these vehicles were exported.

Mercedes-Benz South Africa invested an additional R200-million into the passenger car manufacturing facility in 2016-2017 for the production of the prestigious AMG models.

“The production of the first Mercedes-Benz AMG C63 unit here in East London, sees another exciting model added to our current

C-Class family and further affirms the status of our plant as a key player in the Daimler global network,” Mercedes-Benz South Africa chief executive and executive director: manufacturing, Andreas Engling, said.

“Following the launch of the Mercedes-AMG C43 model in 2017, the first production unit of the flagship C63 model is another great success for our plant, and is testament to the hard work and dedication of our employees who continue to build world-class products at Mercedes-Benz South Africa,” he said. — DDR