By ROUX VAN ZYL
Business Editor
DAIMLERCHRYSLER South Africa’s East London plant kicked back into action yesterday after it received a final quality approval to start full production on the new Mercedes C-Class.
At 2pm, the plant received the green light from its German head office to commercially produce the W204 model for the next seven years.
This brings an end to a four-month plant shutdown during which R2billion was invested in new plant equipment to produce the luxury vehicle, which has already raked in 5000 orders in South Africa alone.
Yesterday afternoon, DCSA’s board member for manufacturing, Joachim Follmann, confirmed that the production had officially started and said the plant would initially produce only 50 units per day.
Production would increase steadily to over 230 units per day by the end of the year.
The first new C-Class is scheduled for delivery on August 6 and the order book that was opened on May 5 is already very healthy.
Follmann said: “A lot of our demand forecasts were based on the W203 model but they now prove to be wrong – there is more demand than anticipated. The Avant Garde model is now more popular, because of its sporty design.”
He said the aim of the new model was to attract younger customers to the Mercedes brand. At present the average Mercedes driver is 50, Follmann said.
During the four month shutdown, DCSA sent 116 of its staff members to its parent company in Bremen, Germany, where the first test production phases were conducted for the W204 C-Class.
The West Bank plant subsequently conducted three test production phases of its own. The final phase ended last week.
About 40 vehicles were manufactured during this last phase and these vehicles were scrutinised by independent quality auditors on Friday.
“Although we have our own quality department who do the normal checks, quality auditors from Germany were brought in last week. We got the figures (yesterday) and it looks excellent,” he said.
Follmann said the plant’s maximum capacity would be reached within one year and the first C-Class exports would leave East London harbour by the end of this year.
Both left-hand and right-hand drive vehicles will be manufactured at the plant and DCSA will export the C-Class to the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and other Pacific Rim countries.
The C-Class will, for the first time, be exported to the US from South Africa.
“The amount of exports will be flexible according to worldwide demand,” he said.
Approximately 25 percent of vehicles produced in East London are destined for the South African market, leaving the other 75 percent for exports.
Follmann said after the R2bn upgrade, the East London plant had the highest manufacturing technology in the world, including laser-welding technology.
“We can now produce any kind of vehicle at this plant. The technology is even higher than in our German plants,” he said.
But the high technology also made it more difficult to find suitably qualified people, Follmann added.
DCSA spokesperson Annelise van der Laan said the separation of Daimler and Chrysler would be complete by December. Daimler’s board of directors in Germany had already approved the name to be changed to Daimler AG.
“We can assume that the local name will change to Daimler South Africa, because we are a 100 percent subsidiary of Daimler AG,” she said.
But she added that the name change would be confirmed in the future.
Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep products will now be untangled from Mercedes and Mitsubishi.
Follmann said this would give Daimler SA a chance to focus on expanding its Mitsubishi products.
“We now have a full new Mitsubishi model range, including the Triton (bakkie) which is a new concept,” he explained.
“Colt production will continue as at least a single cab for fleet sales.”