Mercedes-Benz opens new engine plant at Beijing Benz

November 19, 2013: Mercedes-Benz marked another important milestone in its China strategy with the official opening ceremony of its top-notch engine plant, the first ever for passenger-car engines outside of Germany, built from scratch in only two years after the cornerstone was laid in 2011. An audience of around 400 guests and partners witnessed the ceremony hosted at the Beijing Benz Automotive Corporation (BBAC) engine plant in Beijing on Monday.

“During the past decade of the partnership between Daimler and BAIC, we have seen our production joint venture BBAC grow from strength to strength,” said Hubertus Troska, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Greater China and Chairman and CEO of Daimler Greater China. “The investment of around 400 million euros in our first ever passenger-car engine plant outside of Germany demonstrates both our commitment to serving our Chinese customers even better with the latest technology locally made and our confidence in Mercedes-Benz’s prosperous future here in China.”

As a green-field plant that combines state-of-the art technology with sustainable and lean production processes, the new Beijing-based BBAC engine plant will manufacture four and six-cylinder engines to power the passenger cars produced at BBAC and Mercedes-Benz vans produced locally at the joint venture Fujian Benz Automotive Co. Ltd. (FBAC). Being based on a flexible production-line concept, the annual capacity is planned at 250,000 units for the initial phase.

“We are now building the heart of our Mercedes-Benz cars also here in Beijing, underlining our integrated and strong localization strategy,” pointed out Frank Deiss, President and CEO of BBAC. “The production follows our globally acknowledged quality standards and processes, further strengthening Mercedes-Benz Car’s global production footprint.”

The three-pointed star’s renowned quality standards have been built into every step of both engine and vehicle production processes at BBAC, extending along the entire supply chain. Excellence in engineering and dedication is also provided by the staff at the new Mercedes-Benz engine plant and their continuous on-the-job training, flanked by knowledge transfer from international training programs. In this way, it is assured that every engine and every car built in China lives up to the brand value of ‘the best or nothing’ in exactly the same way as products from any other Mercedes-Benz plant worldwide.

This attention to quality and excellence has once again earned Mercedes-Benz great appreciation. J.D. Power Asia Pacific’s recently released 2013 China Initial Quality Study ranks Mercedes-Benz as the brand with the highest initial quality among 65 international and domestic automakers surveyed, with the brand’s long-wheelbase E-class and the C-class models dominating their respective segments.