[BlazBlue]

Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler, met with French president Emmanuel Macron last week and afterwards he announced the company's plan to produce the first EQ at the Hambach factory in northeastern France. Macron even tweeted about it.
https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/997476935780401152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcleantechnica.com%2F2018%2F05%2F21%2Ffirst-mercedes-eq-compact-electric-car-will-be-built-in-france%2F&tfw_creator=SteveHanleyRI&tfw_site=cleantechnica

Maybe future models will be built there as well.

 

[Enzo]

I'm a little surprised that MB hasn't announced that this EQ line will be produced in China. The EV segment in that country is exploding at the moment, and surely it would help them to keep manufacturing costs down. I really don't think people are as concerned with where a car is made, as we're led to believe. Any thoughts as to why they are considering France?

 

[PetersBenz]

I be that the EU will be making more deals with large companies such as Mercedes to build a stronger economy. Already seen they announced an aggressive budget and that's just what they have right now, who knows what else is in the works. EU has a large labor force which helps here but at the same time has some downsides to it as well.

 

[BlazBlue]

I'm sure some electric models will be built in china to escape the steep import tax, but in the near future it's going to be France. What's so special about the Hambach factory, I'm not sure. Not like it has already been outfitted with the necessary production tools.

 

[All Electric]

The Smart car is built in France at the factory that is going to make the EQ and apparently it is under utilized.

 

[Quinn]

The Hamback plant in France has years of experience in building electric cars, and it makes more sense to invest and expand an existing facility for them to start from the ground up on a new one. I believe MB will be investing around 500 million euros in this plant to get it ready for EQ production.

 

[PetersBenz]

Won't be surprised if 3rd party companies like Magna step in to produce EV's for large car makers like they already do for some cars today.

 

[All Electric]

Lets get it going Mercedes. I can now build a Tesla 3 with 310 miles of range and get it in 2 to 4 months. I don't really want a Tesla 3 but you are starting to annoy me with your promises and secretive behavior. Get the EQC on the road and I don't mean just the Norway expressway. I have owned 6 Mercedes including my current C300 and not new to your product.

 

[All Electric]

I can't add to my comment so I will continue with dealers attitudes. When I mention Mercedes EQ to a couple of dealers in Arizona they respond with the electric will only be built for CA. I hope they are just representing their inventory on the showroom floor. Mercedes how about n update on the billion dollar upgrade to the factory in Vance Ala meant for production of electric vehicles and battery production.

 

[PetersBenz]

I imagine that allocation can change as Mercedes see's fit. At the end of the day they want to place these in environments that best represents the product. I bet even third party research companies can reveal more potential markets.

 

[Quinn]

There is no way Mercedes will opt to make the EQ exclusive to only one region, it just sounds like dealers are still a little bit in the dark in regards to official details. If there we're only going to offer it in one market it would be China, as that's where the EV segment is currently exploding. And I can almost guarantee that if you placed an order for the model 3, that it would be more like a year before you saw delivery.

 

[PetersBenz]

Models themselves should see some sort of limitation from market to market, like China and the U.S., even the UK has its own unique needs.

What we should see stay the same are the use of powertrains. Much like what Chevrolet has done with its Voltec platform, so we will with Mercedes.