Mercedes-Benz said it will respond to the electric era by pushing its Next Level Production strategy. The plan is to build electric vehicles on the same lines that assemble internal combustion engine and hybrid cars to respond to the market flexibly and efficiently and strengthen Mercedes-Benz's future competitiveness.
According to Mercedes-Benz on the 23rd, Ola Källenius, Mercedes-Benz Group chief executive, said at IAA Mobility 2025 in Munich, Germany, on the 7th (local time) that the company plans to launch at least 40 new models from 2025 to 2027. The three-year new-model offensive will follow the Next Level Production strategy, which aims to flexibly convert the production system.
The core of the Next Level Production strategy disclosed by Mercedes-Benz is to use the company's manufacturing plants flexibly. The Bremen plant in Germany and the Kecskemét plant in Hungary will serve as hubs. Major vehicles based on Mercedes-Benz's next-generation dedicated EV platform, MB.EA (Mercedes-Benz Electric Architecture), are scheduled to be built at the two plants.
The Bremen plant is set to produce the all-electric GLC, and the Kecskemét plant will produce the electric C-Class. In particular, the electric GLC will be built on the same line that makes internal combustion and hybrid models. A Mercedes-Benz official said, "This integrated production system is the core of the flexibility and efficiency Mercedes-Benz pursues." Mercedes-Benz invested €2 billion (about 3.3 trillion won) to build this system. It also introduced an artificial intelligence system to manage production.
Mercedes-Benz is cutting costs through system upgrades. From 2024 to 2027, it expects to reduce production costs by about 10% through these upgrades.
In addition, Mercedes-Benz is operating its production plants worldwide as carbon neutral. It has set a plan to replace 70% of production energy with renewable energy by 2030. To that end, it is promoting projects such as an onshore wind power plant in Papenburg in northern Germany. It aims to use 100% renewable energy at all production facilities by 2039.