Mercedes-Benz start production of the new EQS SUV in Alabama
Mercedes-Benz is exclusively producing the all-electric EQS SUV at its North American passenger vehicle plant. This is a key step in the company's push to produce eight all-electric vehicles at seven sites on three continents this year.
The full-size EQS SUV is integrated in series production at the Mercedes-Benz Tuscaloosa plant in Alabama, which has been the production site for large SUVs bearing the three-pointed star since 1997.
“Our production network is very well positioned for the sustainable and rapid scaling of electric vehicle volumes. With the new EQS SUV joining our production portfolio of all-electric Mercedes-EQ models, we reached another important milestone in our strategy to go all electric by the end of the decade – wherever market conditions allow. I am absolutely sure that our great Tuscaloosa team will make the electric SUV another global success,” says Jörg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Production and Supply Chain, in a press release.
Local battery production is viewed as a key success factor for Mercedes-Benz's electrification initiative.
The new battery factory, which opened in Bibb County in March, produces the battery systems for the EQS SUV on an approximately 300-meter or 985 feet-long production line with more than 70 workstations. A host of components is assembled into a complete system in a fully digitised production process, including up to twelve cell modules and what is known as the EE compartment for the intelligent integration of the power electronics. The battery for the EQS SUV is based on a modular architecture that is also used in the EQS and EQE Sedans. With the new plant, Bibb County is now a part of the global Mercedes-Benz battery production network, which comprises of factories on three different continents.
