news

for china, the world's largest and most dynamic automobile market,benzonce again demonstrating its determination to work hand in hand with chinese partners, mercedes-benz group announced today that according to the group's business plan, it will invest more than rmb 14 billion in china together with its chinese partners to further enrich its localized product lineup of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.

mercedes-benz currently has two joint ventures in china, namely beijing benz and fujian benz. according to the new investment plan, the two joint ventures will receive investments of more than rmb 10 billion and rmb 4 billion respectively to further enrich china's "smart manufacturing" product lineup.

before the announcement of this massive investment plan, ola källenius, chairman of the board of management of mercedes-benz group ag, had just visited china recently. this was his fourth visit to china this year, following three visits in march and april. during his previous visits to china, he mentioned many times that china plays an important role in mercedes-benz's global strategy. it is not only mercedes-benz's largest single market, but also one of the world's largest mercedes-benz automobile production bases and technological innovation centers. in the future, mercedes-benz will continue to invest in china, strengthen cooperation with chinese partners, and vigorously promote electrification and digital transformation.

as the chinese auto market accelerates electrification and intelligence, mercedes-benz is also continuing to implement its strategic layout of transformation, advanced technological innovation, and the latest blockbuster products in china at the "china speed". starting from 2025, mercedes-benz will successively put into production the new pure electric long-wheelbase cla model, the long-wheelbaseGLE new suv models, and a new luxury pure electric mpv based on the van.ea platform.

two new pure electric platforms are ready to go

starting from 2025, mercedes-benz plans to put into production new models based on mercedes-benz's new modular architecture (mma) platform at beijing benz, including a new pure electric long-wheelbase cla model tailored for chinese customers.

the latest technology of the new mma platform model can be seen from the display last year.mercedes-benz cla-classthe cla concept car adopts an efficient 800-volt electrical architecture and a class-leading two-speed transmission. the comprehensive energy conversion efficiency from battery to wheels reaches 93%, which can achieve a range of 400 kilometers after charging for 15 minutes and bring an excellent energy efficiency performance of 12 kwh/100 kilometers, making it a "1-liter fuel car" in the electric era.

in the future, all new medium and large models of mercedes-benz light commercial vehicles will be based on the modular and scalable van.ea electrification platform. the announced investment will partially support fujian benz to produce a new luxury pure electric mpv based on the van.ea platform.

“mapless” end-to-end full-scenario intelligent driving will be unveiled next year

as the world's first automaker to hold both l3 conditional autonomous driving and l4 automatic driverless parking certificates, in december last year, mercedes-benz became one of the first companies approved for beijing's conditional autonomous driving (l3) highway road test license. many chinese users want to know when they can experience high-level autonomous driving in a mercedes-benz car.

in this investment plan, mercedes-benz also announced that its independently developed new architecture mb.os will also be launched in 2025 with the new mma platform models, providing a new mbux virtual assistant supported by 3d graphics technology and a large language model, as well as the luxury brand's first "picture-free" end-to-end full-scene intelligent driving system, which will bring a new digital luxury experience to chinese customers.

the long-wheelbase gle suv will be produced in china

another focus of this investment will be the local r&d and production of the new long-wheelbase gle suv model exclusively for china. the gle suv model has been very popular with chinese customers since it was introduced to china. in recent years, the chinese r&d team has done a lot of work for the localization of this model. it is reported that the new long-wheelbase gle suv model will be developed by the chinese team for the first time, and will provide a comfortable experience and advanced smart technology exclusive to china.

the new long-wheelbase gle suv is another result of mercedes-benz's continuous deepening of localization centered on the needs of chinese customers.e-classfrom the glk-class, the first domestically produced suv in 2011, to the electric models that beijing benz has put into production since 2019, there are currently 11 mercedes-benz models produced in china, including 6 suv models. the addition of the new long-wheelbase gle suv will further enrich the chinese suv lineup.

the cumulative investment in the past 9 years has exceeded 100 billion

the additional investment of over 14 billion yuan is another proof of mercedes-benz's emphasis on the chinese market. statistics show that from 2014 to 2023, mercedes-benz and its partners have invested more than 100 billion yuan in china, continuously promoting localization, and constantly enriching the "everything is mercedes-benz" luxury model lineup, committed to bringing chinese customers the products and services that best meet their needs.

ola källenius, chairman of the board of management of mercedes-benz group ag, pointed out during his recent visit to china: "the chinese market is one of the important pillars of the mercedes-benz group's global strategy and an important driving force for our electrification transformation and technological innovation. mercedes-benz has always been committed to long-term investment in china, deeply involved in and helping the upgrading of china's automobile industry."

with the continuous investment of mercedes-benz, both beijing benz and fujian benz have the industry-leading "intelligent manufacturing" strength and abide by mercedes-benz's global quality standards. beijing benz has been promoting digital production in all aspects since its establishment 19 years ago, and has introduced the mercedes-benz passenger car production operation 360 (mo360) system to continuously improve the digital intelligent management level throughout the entire process of logistics, production, quality, technical maintenance, etc. fujian benz will also promote the combination of china's "intelligent manufacturing" and localized research and development, not only in-depth cultivation in the introduction of models, technology introduction, talent training, intelligent manufacturing, etc., but also from the management and certification levels, strictly build a sound and orderly quality management system.

mercedes-benz's two joint ventures in china have also contributed to the vigorous development of china's automobile industry and local economic construction. beijing benz's total industrial output value has increased more than 50 times since its establishment, providing high-quality employment opportunities for more than 17,000 people. in the first quarter of 2024, beijing benz achieved a cumulative production of more than 5 million vehicles; fujian benz has been ranked first in fuzhou's industrial enterprises in tax payment since 2017. as of june this year, it has achieved a cumulative output value of more than 111.2 billion yuan and paid more than 16.745 billion yuan in taxes.

in recent years, mercedes-benz has continuously increased its r&d investment in china, with a total investment of rmb 10.5 billion in the past five years. mercedes-benz's large-scale r&d centers in beijing and shanghai have formed mercedes-benz's "dual innovation engines" in china, and the chinese r&d team is also playing a leading role in more and more global r&d projects. for example, the world's next-generation rear entertainment system was developed by the chinese r&d team, and its software development took only 18 months.

at the same time, mercedes-benz is also actively involved in environmental protection, driving culture, education support, culture and art, and social care, practicing corporate social responsibility. since 2007, mercedes-benz has invested more than 360 million yuan in public welfare in china, and is the only international brand that has established long-term public welfare partnerships with both the palace museum and the dunhuang academy.

hubertus troska, member of the board of directors of mercedes-benz group ag and responsible for greater china, said: "china is one of the most dynamic markets in the world. it not only has the youngest customer base in the world, but also the most complete industrial chain and excellent partners. we will work together tobaicthe group and other partners will continue to invest in china, injecting new impetus into the development of mercedes-benz china's business and global innovation."