Daimler Urged to Reconsider U.S. Expansion

Daimler AG should rethink some of its plans to expand production in the U.S. if the dollar remains strong against the euro, suggests Michael Brecht, the company's top labor representative.

A weak euro reduces the benefit of producing vehicles in North America for local sale. Brecht's comment to a roundtable in Stuttgart apparently refers to the plan Daimler announced last October to relocate production of some Mercedes-Benz Sprinter commercial vans from Dusseldorf to somewhere in North America.

Most Sprinters sold in the U.S. currently are assembled locally in South Carolina from kits supplied from Germany, according to Reuters. The news service notes that the U.S. is the second-largest national market for Sprinters, after Germany.

Brecht says unspecified projects that haven't yet been fully implemented could be modified or delayed if the euro remains weak.

Daimler also has announced plans with Nissan Motor Co. to build a $1 billion (€880 million) assembly plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and build 4-cylinder engines for Mercedes vehicles at Nissan's car plant in Alabama.