Alabama plant to make hybrid version of Mercedes M-Class

1/17/2008, 4:04 p.m. EST The Associated Press

VANCE, Ala. (AP) — Mercedes-Benz is going green in Alabama.

A pilot team is studying manufacturing and training changes that will have to be made at the company's plant in Tuscaloosa County to accommodate a hybrid version of its M-Class sports-utility vehicle, the ML450.

The ML450 will be Mercedes' first gas-electric vehicle.

"We're in prep mode right now," said Felycia Jerald, a factory spokeswoman.

The plant, which has about 4,000 employees, is not expected to hire additional people. Teams of Alabama employees have been traveling to Germany to learn more about the hybrid, which is more fuel efficient than gasoline-only engines.

"At the present, we plan to do it with the current work force that we have," Jerald said. "We'll have to see how things go in the future."

The ML-450 is slated to hit the market in 2009. Mercedes announced production plans for the vehicle during this week's North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The M-Class was the first Mercedes made in Alabama in 1997, but the R-Class crossover and GL-Class full-sized sport utility have since been added to the production lineup at Vance.

The R-Class has failed to live up to sales expectations and a successor is in the works, Dieter Zetsche, chief executive of Mercedes parent, Daimler, told Automotive News Europe in a report published Monday.

Mercedes at first planned annual production of 50,000 units of the R-Class, with half slated for sale in the United States. Sales of the R-Class have never approached that number, however, despite a $5,000 price cut last year and a redesign to include additional seating.

James Cashman, a management professor at the University of Alabama and a 25-year veteran of the automotive industry, said concern over rising fuel prices may have hurt the R-Class.

"Why would the R-Class be difficult for Mercedes right now?" Cashman said. "(For the) same reason Ford is scared to death for their F-Series trucks — this is a class of vehicles that are beginning to lose their poignancy with the American public because they are simply too fuel inefficient."

Jerald said the Vance plant is still producing the R-Class, which may be redesigned again.