MADRID – The Vito and Class V models have extended Mercedes-Benz’s successful inroads into the global midsize van segment beyond the popular Sprinter, says Frank Klein, director of Mercedes-Benz Vans Operations.
Mercedes-Benz Vans reports delivering 76,000 units during the year’s first quarter, a 20% year-over-year increase. Vito sales of 21,300 are up 61% from 13,200 prior-year, with Class V up 58% from 5,900 to 9,300.
Parent Daimler has invested more than €190 million ($213 million) in the plant in Vitoria, 220 miles (356 lm) northeast of Madrid. It will spend €41 million ($45.8 million) this year alone, up from €27 million ($30.1 million) in 2015. Most of the money is earmarked for upgrading assembly and painting operations.
The plant assembles 540 vehicles per day on two shifts, up from 470 in 2015. To keep pace with rising sales, 800 new workers have been hired this year, and for the first time in its history the facility is operating during two summer months when it traditionally shuts down. A third shift to be added in October will raise daily output to 660 vehicles.
Midsize Daimler vans are assembled in the U.S., Argentina and China in addition to the Vitoria plant, where it implements new assembly technologies and processes in order to increase product quality at each of the other facilities.
Production in China began early this year with the Class V model being assembled by Fujian Benz Automotive, a joint venture established in 2007 in Fuzhou, China, between Daimler, Taiwanese China Motor and the state-owned Fujian Motors Group. The JV will add Vito production later this year.
The U.S. variant of the Vito, the Metris, recently launched in North America.
The increased investment at Vitoria is announced during negotiations on a new, 4-year contract with the five unions representing the plant’s 3,500 workers. Talks have been suspended while the unions resolve a leadership dispute in which four of the unions combined to oust the president of the works council, a member of UGT, the fifth and largest union.
