Daimler Announces Sprinter Van Plant for U.S.

Daimler AG will spend $500 million to build a factory in Ladson, S.C., to make Mercedes-Benz Sprinter delivery vans.

Construction is to begin in 2016 with production starting about one year later. The 200-acre site near Charleston will make vans under its Mercedes and Freightliner brands. The new facility will create about 1,300 jobs.

Daimler said last October it intended to move some Sprinter production work to the U.S. from Germany. Currently the company assembles Sprinters in South Carolina from kits made in Dusseldorf, Germany. The U.S. is Daimler's second-largest market for the vans, after Germany.