Daimler to build new tech center China

This marks the further expansion of the company’s footprint in its single largest market and will be its second major R&D site in Beijing, following the Mercedes-Benz R&D Center established in 2014. The new site will be located on the premises of the local production hub Beijing Benz Automotive Co. Ltd. (BBAC), and will allow Daimler to accelerate the localization of new Mercedes-Benz products in China. The new venture is scheduled to start operations in 2020. “We remain positive for further growth opportunities in China, our largest market, and will continue with our investment here. Together with BAIC Group, we announced earlier this year to further expand with a second production plant in Beijing in preparation for future Mercedes-Benz products, including battery-electric vehicles. Now, we will further invest in the establishment of a second R&D facility, which we believe will help us to even better understand the market demands and accelerate the localization of our products to further delight Chinese customers,” says Hubertus Troska, Member of the Board of Management, Daimler AG, responsible for Greater China, in a press release. Covering a gross floor area of 55’000 square metres, the Daimler R&D Tech Center China will consist of a test building and an office building. The office building will be capable of accommodating up to 600 employees, while the two-story test building will include a warehouse and parking area for 250 test vehicles. It will house an array of test facilities for overall vehicle and component testing, ranging from electric drive and charging, powertrain, chassis, in-vehicle air quality, emission to noise, vibration and harshness (NVH). New test labs will have the capacity to carry out a range of basic to complex tests, such as system calibration, durability and thermodynamics. The facilities will incorporate road simulators and climate simulation, making testing as accurate and as optimized as possible.