Mercedes-Benz revealed the new GLE and GLS last month at its Tuscaloosa, Alabama assembly plant, timing the world premieres to coincide with the facility’s five-millionth SUV rolling off the line after 30 years of production.
The full-size GLS reinforces what Mercedes calls its S-Class-among-SUVs positioning, while the GLE continues as one of the brand’s bestselling and most versatile models. The sportier GLE Coupe returns with what the company describes as dynamic design and driving character. Mercedes-AMG also revealed the GLE 53 HYBRID models alongside the standard variants.
The ceremony drew Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius, company board members, U.S. Department of Transportation secretary Sean Duffy, and U.S. Senators Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville. The location matters to Mercedes: the Tuscaloosa plant exports roughly 60 percent of its output, making it one of the largest automobile exporters in the country.
The Alabama Investment
Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, established in 1995, will receive $4 billion of a broader $7 billion investment in U.S. operations by 2030. The Tuscaloosa facility currently employs around 5,800 workers assembling the GLE, GLS, GLE Coupe, AMG performance variants, and the Mercedes-Maybach GLS. The plant also builds the all-electric EQE SUV, EQS SUV, and Mercedes-Maybach EQS SUV. Mercedes confirmed the GLC SUV will come to Tuscaloosa over the next few years.
The five-million-vehicle milestone spans from the pioneering M-Class that debuted in 1997 to today’s lineup. Mercedes rival BMW operates its South Carolina plant in a similar manner, assembling SUVs for U.S. buyers while shipping the rest overseas.
The reveal was part of the brand’s 140 Years. 140 Places tour, in which three new S-Class sedans are traveling more than 30,000 miles across six continents, stopping at 140 locations. The tour commemorates 140 years since Carl Benz filed the patent for the first automobile. Mercedes has been in the U.S. for 138 of those years, dating to 1888 when Gottlieb Daimler partnered with piano manufacturer William Steinway to found the Daimler Motor Company in Long Island City, New York. Local assembly of what Mercedes called the American Mercedes began in 1905.
The Broader U.S. Footprint
Mercedes-Benz sold 303,200 passenger cars and 40,000 vans in the U.S. last year, making it the company’s second-largest market. The brand supports an estimated 160,000 jobs across the country: 10,600 direct jobs, an estimated 107,000 across suppliers and service providers, and another 27,000 at its 386-dealer network. Around 7,500 of the direct jobs are in assembly.
In Charleston, South Carolina, around 1,700 employees assemble the Sprinter and eSprinter for the North American market. That plant celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Last year, the facility built its five-millionth Sprinter globally, an all-electric eSprinter handed to FedEx.
Mercedes-Benz USA moved its headquarters from Montvale, New Jersey to Atlanta in 2015, then into a purpose-built facility in Sandy Springs in 2018. The company is moving up to 500 roles from various locations into a new R&D hub in Atlanta, a strategic investment leveraging the engineering talent around Georgia Institute of Technology and the region’s tech sectors. Mercedes-Benz Research & Development also operates locations in San Jose, Long Beach, and Carlsbad, California, as well as Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The new GLE and GLS arrive as Mercedes executes what it calls the biggest product launch program in its history, including the new S-Class and the award-winning all-new CLA. The company frames the vehicles as embodying modern design, cutting-edge technology, and exceptional comfort, though those claims will face the judgment of buyers cross-shopping the segment.
Pricing and on-sale dates were not disclosed. Last year’s GLE started around $62,000, with the prior generation GLS starting at $90,000, which suggests the refreshed models will land in similar territory or higher depending on what Mercedes has added to the spec sheet.
The $4 billion Tuscaloosa investment and the GLC’s future arrival signal Mercedes sees Alabama as central to its global production network. Whether that confidence translates to market-share gains in a segment where BMW and Audi have been equally aggressive remains the open question.
Source: Mercedes-Benz. Images courtesy of Mercedes-Benz.
