Daimler expands production in South Africa

The investment will arrange the East London plant for production of the next-generation Mercedes-Benz C-class starting in 2014, Daimler said in a statement. The factory, together with facilities in Germany, China and the United States, will build the new C-class, the company's most popular passenger model. 

The factory has “managed to provide us with a business and production plan that is competitive globally,” Wolfgang Bernhard, Mercedes production and purchasing chief, said in the statement.

Daimler, the world's second-largest maker of luxury autos, has invested more than $718 million in South Africa over the past 10 years and the East London factory recently exported its 100,000th C-class model, according to today's statement. The South African plant will manufacture left- and right-hand drive C-class models for export to the rest of Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.