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China's BAIC looks to invest in Daimler

Daimler and Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC) are already intertwined in China. Daimler is a 12-percent shareholder in BAIC Motor, the third largest shareholder in the passenger-car division of BAIC. They have a joint manufacturing venture Beijing Benz in which BAIC is the majority partner by one percent, a sales joint venture Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service Co. in which Daimler is the majority partner by one percent, and Daimer says, "BAIC is our most important partner in China." Beijing Benz is ten years old this year. They'll become even closer if talks between the two concerning BAIC taking "a major stake" in the German conglomerate come to anything. Reuters reports that the two are in talks now, with BAIC Chairman Xu Heyi saying it should be resolved one way or another by the end of this year. If they agree, the China-based, Hong Kong-listed company will join Renault-Nissan and the Kuwait Investment Authority as Daimler's top shareholders. Some China analysts see a potential Daimler investment as a coup for BAIC, similar to BAIC's 2009 purchase of old Saab platform, engine, and transmission technologies, that would give it access to technologies it wouldn't have to develop on its own and hastening the development of its own cars. A deal is also seen as potentially opening up export possibilities for the Chinese company. Other analysts aren't sure that BAIC would get any useful technology, noting that that last deal between the two gave BAIC the outdated E-Class platform, but none of Mercedes' headline tech. If a deal is done, BAIC will join Dongfeng Group and SAIC as Chinese automaker investors in western automotive companies.

Mercedes Alabama ops ordered to allow workers to discuss unionization

A decision last week by the National Labor Relations Board has bolstered the efforts of the United Auto Workers at Mercedes-Benz's Tuscaloosa, AL factory, as the union continues its attempts to represent the factory's workers. According to Reuters, the NLRB ruled that Mercedes-Benz US International, the proper name of the company behind the Tuscaloosa factory, can no longer prevent workers from discussing unionization in work areas while off the clock. While MBUSI maintains that it's not taking a side on unionization and that it wants the "the decision left to our team members," the UAW is still arguing that the US facility should take the same position on unions that the rest the world's Mercedes-Benz plants take and. Speaking to Reuters, the UAW says that stance "acknowledges the human right to form trade unions" and "respects the right of collective bargaining." According to Reuters, the Alabama factory employs 3,500 workers – 2,500 full time and 1,000 "temporary" – and is the only Daimler-owned factory on the planet not to offer employees the opportunity for representation. Presently, the Tuscaloosa facility assembles Mercedes' C-Class, GL-Class and M-Class vehicles.

Hybrids to slowly replace diesels at Mercedes

German automakers have had some success bringing diesel-powered vehicles in America in recent years, but that may not last much longer. A product planner from Mercedes-Benz we spoke to in Austria apparently believes hybrid setups may be more favorable in the long run, and electrified hybrids will eventually replace oil burners. That's why most every concept car we've seen in the last few years features some sort of hybrid or plug-in hybrid setup while there have been very few diesels. "Yes, diesel is technically complex, and very expensive. The additives to reduce particulate matter are very costly. You'll see more hybrids to meet the changing regulations," according to our source. We've seen this exact scenario play out with Mazda, which has struggled to bring its 2.2-liter diesel engine to America, citing the costly process to reduce emissions in order to meet California-level standards while still maintaining suitable performance for the US market. It's certainly interesting that this news comes hot on the heels of revelations that VW, the automaker that offers the most diesel-powered models in the US, was found in violation of emissions rules on its popular 2.0-liter TDI engine. New Mercedes GLE Will Have An Active Chassis Mercedes has launched an all-out product offensive in the last two years, but the product planning think tanks in Stuttgart have a few surprises in store, too. While Benz has just launched its new GLE SUV family, GLE product planners are already hard at work on the next-generation – yes, a good 5-6 years away – and tell us it will evolve to boast new chassis technology, "something that doesn't exist today." The next-GLE is codenamed 167 – the previous ML (now replaced by the GLE) was internally referred to as 166 – and the GLE planner we recently talked to calls the platform an "active chassis." He further alluded that the next version could be electrified. Currently, the only aspect of the GLE's chassis that is 'active' today are the hydraulic pumps on the roll bars, he said. Many of Mercedes' models can already be had with an adaptive air suspension, multiple selectable driving modes, and other features that were rare or nonexistent just a couple generations ago. One More Compact Crossover On The Way The planner said we can also at least one more all-new, forthcoming compact crossover to be built on the GLA platform. In addition to the GLA, that architecture is currently shared by the A-Class, B-Class, and CLA-Class models.