NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Prompted by a growing North American market for its vans, Mercedes-Benz Vans is building a new $500 million assembly plant in South Carolina.
Several hundred people attended the groundbreaking Wednesday in North Charleston.
The site is next to a plant where, for the past decade, the company has put Sprinter vans made in Germany back together after being disassembled and shipped to the U.S. because of the high duties on importing finished vehicles.
The head of Mercedes-Benz Vans, Volker Mornhinweg, says the company decided to build an assembly plant because of growing demand for vans and the fact it already has 200 trained workers and property at the site.
The operation will eventually employ 1,300 workers.
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The short headline in this story has been corrected to Mercedes-Benz Vans, instead of Daimler to correct the company name.