Mercedes assembles sports cars in Vietnam for the first time
The first high-performance Mercedes-AMG model to be born at the company's factory in Go Vap (HCMC) will be the C 43 4Matic, early 2023.
This information was given by Bredley Kelly, General Director of Mercedes Vietnam on September 21 at the MBDF 2022 car experience event at the Hanoi F1 racetrack. The AMG cars assembled in Go Vap will only serve the Vietnamese market, not for export. The first car to mark this event will be the C 43 4Matic in early 2023.
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| AMG car assembly at factory in Germany. Photo:Thanh Nhan |
AMG, a German tuning company founded in 1967, was originally a high-performance tuning company. In 1993, the company merged with Daimler-Benz - the parent company of Mercedes. By 1999, Mercedes officially owned AMG, named Mercedes-AMG, and from there strongly developed sports car lines, to prove that it was not inferior to other pure sports car companies such as Porsche, BMW M...
The special thing about AMG car manufacturing is the philosophy of "One Man, One Engine" - one engineer, one engine. Each engine bears the special mark of the person who assembled it completely by hand. In fact, each engine engineer does not share the tool kit with others.
Mercedes Vietnam said it will maintain this characteristic when assembling AMG cars in Vietnam. The engine block will be imported from the parent company's factory in Affalterbach (Germany), to maintain the uniqueness and mark of the creator of each car.
The assembly of AMG cars in Vietnam is part of the German carmaker's overall strategy in Southeast Asian markets. Currently, the AMG 43 series has been assembled at the company's factories in many places as well as in the Southeast Asian region.
Before announcing the AMG assembly, Mercedes Vietnam invested about 33 million USD in 2021-2022 to upgrade 6 technologies for the factory. Previously, the company stopped assembling the flagship sedan S-class to switch to importing from Thailand. The price of the imported version is even more accessible than the previously assembled car.
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| Mercedes-AMG GLA 45S costs 3.43 billion in Vietnam. Photo:MBV |
In terms of sales, AMG cannot be as effective as S-class, but S-class imported from Thailand still meets the selling price requirement, and installing AMG will be a highlight to reduce the price of these high-performance cars.
The company's factory currently assembles the C-class, E-class and GLC. Of which, the two small car lines C and GLC play a major role in the factory's output.
By assembling in Vietnam, avoiding large import taxes, Mercedes dealers expect the price of AMG cars to decrease to attract more customers to this high-performance car line. Currently in Vietnam, the C or GLC lines also have AMG versions, but only with body kits (AMG 3 numbers, for example C300) and not true AMG (AMG 2 numbers, for example C43).