Daimler, the parent company of German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz, plans to invest US$350 million and create some 400 new jobs at its U.S. plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to build a brand-new, but as of yet, unnamed model.
Currently, Mercedes-Benz manufactures the M-, GL-, and R-Class SUVs in Tuscaloosa, while the German firm will also assemble the next generation of the C-Class series for the North American market beginning 2014.
“This new model from the Tuscaloosa plant is an important element of our growth strategy,” Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said Friday in a statement. “It is one of the ten additional models which we will introduce within the next four years alone across all segments.”
While there have been reports for a smaller model based on the architecture of the next A-Class, it is believed that the fifth model will be Mercedes-Benz’s answer to the BMW X6, a sporty looking crossover with a rakish roofline based on the M-Class.
