Mercedes-Benz SA adds milestone

The one millionth Mercedes-Benz Passenger Car off the line at the Mercedes-Benz East London plant - Mr Arno van der Merwe CEO and Executive Director

The one millionth Mercedes-Benz passenger car is a white right-hand drive C200 Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

It was on 31 January 1958, 57 years ago, when the first Mercedes-Benz passenger car, a W121 Nap Vista Blue Mercedes-Benz 190, came off the line of the then Car Distributors Assembly (CDA) in East London. CDA, the company that would become Mercedes-Benz South Africa, opened its doors ten years earlier and was contracted in 1958 by Daimler-Benz to assemble Mercedes-Benz products. This first unit was dispatched to John Williams Motors in Bloemfontein. Since then, MBSA has entrenched its place in the South African story, having produced 24 different models with the number of units produced per model steadily climbing to where the East London plant is on track this year to produce a record number of units - for the domestic market and for export.

"MBSA will continue to create jobs, developing the economy and essentially transferring skills. Over the years we have always placed emphasis on superior quality in the products we deliver to our customers. For us excellence is the norm and should not simply be an expectation of something that can be achieved in the future. It is also befitting that the one millionth Mercedes-Benz passenger car produced here today is the latest generation C-Class, which was deservedly announced as the 2015 World Car of the Year in April 2015," says Mercedes-Benz South Africa CEO and Executive Director Manufacturing, Arno van der Merwe.

Markus Schäfer, Member of the Divisional Board Mercedes-Benz Cars, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management: "South Africa is an important location in our global C-Class production network. One million Mercedes-Benz passenger cars made at the East London plant illustrate the remarkable development this location has seen over the years." Schäfer also praised the plant's team members for their performance and their continuous focus on efficiency, flexibility, and top-notch quality: "With their knowledge and their dedication, the entire team of the East London plant is making an important contribution to the global success of our highest-volume model series."