The 20-millionth vehicle has left the production line at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen. The jubilee car, an S 500 Plug-In Hybrid, was received by Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, and by Markus Schäfer, Member of the Divisional Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Production and Supply Chain Management. Mercedes-Benz has also reached the number of 20 million Facebook fans, giving it the biggest fan community in the history of the Mercedes-Benz brand.
Legendary products have been produced in Sindelfingen for a long time. They include the Mercedes-Benz 170 with the safety-enhancing new swing axle before 1946 and the so called “Großer Mercedes” which was the preferred conveyance of several popes and monarchs. The Mercedes-Benz Type K compressor sports car ushered in the era of elegant and comfortable automobiles. The 260 D was also produced in Sindelfingen, the first diesel car with a power output of 45 horsepower. The first automobiles completely produced at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen also include the 170 S Cabriolet A, which was built between 1949 and 1951. Other legendary cars are the 300 SL “Gullwing,” the 190 SL and the “Ponton”, the first Mercedes-Benz with a self-supporting body. In the recent past, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG attracted great attention as a gullwing and a roadster, followed by the Mercedes-AMG GT in 2014.
In the global production network of Mercedes-Benz Cars the Sindelfingen plant is the competence center for upper range and luxury-class vehicles. The plant celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. After an eventful history, which began in 1915 with the production of airplanes and airplane engines and continued with the production of vehicle bodies, Mercedes-Benz started to manufacture complete cars in Sindelfingen in 1946. The current S-Class and its predecessors have been built at the Sindelfingen plant since the Mercedes-Benz 220 was launched in the spring of 1951. The S-Class sedan is the world’s bestselling luxury sedan.
The Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen employs approximately 26,000 people. Last year, 367,313 cars of the Mercedes-Benz C-, E-, S-Class and the CLS, the CLS Shooting Brake, the SLS AMG and the Mercedes-AMG GT rolled off the production lines. Over 250 vehicles are handed over every day at the Sindelfingen Mercedes-Benz Customer Center alone.
