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Mercedes invests $1.3 billion to expand Alabama factory

Mercedes-Benz announced a $1.3-billion investment Friday in its Tuscaloosa, AL, factory to increase SUV production capacity. The move comes on the heels of Autoblog's exclusive report that the GLC Coupe Concept will enter production as the German luxury marque continues to push for increased SUV sales. The investment will add 300 jobs to the approximately 3,500-strong workforce. The facility will be responsible for what Mercedes calls "the next SUV generations," which makes it sound like the plant will continue to assemble the GLE-Class and GL-Class SUVs, as well as the C-Class sedan. The next-gen SUVs built in Alabama will include hybrid variants, Mercedes said. Upgrades to the sprawling 5-million-square-foot facility include a new 1.3-million-square-foot body shop that will implement modular construction techniques. As for the current body shop, it will be expanded by nearly 140,000 square feet and will receive a larger "marriage" station, for pairing bodies and powertrains. Finally, the entire facility will receive a major IT upgrade. "In the next years we invest $1.3 billion in the expansion of our SUV production and turn the Mercedes-Benz plant Tuscaloosa into a high-tech location," Mercedes' Markus Schafer said in the attached release. "In this way we can produce the next SUV generations even more flexibly, efficiently and in proven top quality." If you're interested in the nitty gritty particulars of the announcement, you can read all about them in the official press release. Mercedes-Benz Tuscaloosa Plant: Mercedes-Benz invests $1.3 Billion in the expansion of its SUV production Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA / Stuttgart, Germany, Sep 18, 2015 MBUSI (Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc.) to produce future SUV generations including hybrid versions SUV production to be expanded – 300 new jobs New Body Shop, major enhancements to SUV Assembly Shop and upgraded logistics and IT systems Implementation of state-of-the-art technologies and end-to-end digitization of production processes in line with the smart factory approach Markus Schafer, Member of the Divisional Board Mercedes-Benz Cars, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management: "In the next years we invest $1.3 billion in the expansion of our SUV production and turn the Mercedes-Benz plant Tuscaloosa into a high-tech location.

Mercedes-Benz engines with 48-volt systems coming in 2017

As part of a big green push announced yesterday, Mercedes-Benz is jumping into the world of 48-volt power. The company will launch a new family of efficient gasoline engines next year and will begin rolling out 48-volt systems with it, likely in its more expensive cars first. Mercedes will use the 48-volt systems to power mild-hybrid functions like energy recuperation (commonly called brake regeneration), engine stop-start, electric boost, and even moving a car from a stop on electric power alone. These features will be enabled through either an integrated starter-generator (Mercedes abbreviates it ISG) or a belt-driven generator (RSG). (RSG is from the German word for belt-driven generator, Riemenstartergeneratoren. That's your language lesson for the day.) Mercedes didn't offer many other details on the new family of engines. There are 48-volt systems already in production; Audi's three-compressor SQ7 engine uses an electric supercharger run by a 48-volt system, and there's a new SQ5 diesel on the horizon that will use a similar setup with the medium-voltage system. Electric superchargers require a lot of juice, which can be fed by either a supercapacitor or batteries in a 48-volt system. Why 48-volt Matters: Current hybrid and battery-electric vehicles make use of very high voltages in their batteries, motors, and the wiring that connects them, usually around 200 to 600 volts. The high voltage gives them enough power to move a big vehicle, but it also creates safety issues. The way to mitigate those safety issues is with added equipment, and that increases both cost and weight. You can see where this is going. By switching to a 48-volt system, the high-voltage issues go away and the electrical architecture benefits from four times the voltage of a normal vehicle system and uses the same current, providing four times the power. The electrical architecture will cost more than a 12-volt system but less than the complex and more dangerous systems in current electrified vehicles. The added cost makes sense now because automakers are running out of ways to wisely spend money for efficiency gains. Cars can retain a cheaper 12-volt battery for lower-power accessories and run the high-draw systems on the 48-volt circuit. The industry is moving toward 48-volt power, with the SAE working on a standard for the systems and Delphi claiming a 10-percent increase in fuel economy for cars that make the switch.

Singer Porsche, Koenigsegg, NSX: Leno's life doesn't suck

Jay Leno had quite a productive trip this year during Monterey Car Week. Not only did he get to pal around with Ian Callum and check out the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, but the denim-clad comedian also headed to The Quail to talk to some prominent figures in the modern sports car scene. Capping off the fun, he got to take a drive in a Mercedes-AMG GT S, too Perhaps the highlight of this show is a nearly 10-minute interview with Christian von Koenigsegg. The founder of the Swedish hypercar company digs deep into the Agera One:1's engineering details, relating interesting facts about the aerodynamics and transmission. In addition, Leno chats with Rob Dickenson of Singer about its newly reimagined Porsche 911 Targa, and he gets the latest scoop on the Acura NSX's progress from newly promoted Acura Vice President and General Manager Jon Ikeda. If you like hearing about the nuts and bolts of sports car development, then this video can't be missed. Of course, we were there at Monterey, too, and we pointed our own cameras at some of the amazing machinery, both vintage and modern, at all the various car-focused events of the week. Take a look back at some of our own cool footage in the videos below. Related Video: