Mercedes-Benz Group has completed a €1 billion expansion of its Kecskemét plant in Hungary, transforming it into the automaker's largest factory in Europe with a potential annual capacity of up to 400,000 vehicles. Chief executive Ola Källenius called the site, located about 80 kilometres southeast of Budapest, a key location for the company.
The investment added two new halls for bodywork and assembly, a second press shop, a paint shop, and a battery assembly facility. The plant will now produce the electric C-Class alongside the existing A-Class and GLB models, while a smaller version of the G-Class will be built exclusively at the Hungarian site. The expansion is expected to create approximately 3,000 new jobs at the facility, which already employed nearly 5,200 workers.
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar attended the opening, praising the plant as a symbol of German-Hungarian cooperation. The strategic push comes as Mercedes-Benz aims to double the share of production in lower-cost European countries to 30 percent, leveraging Hungarian production costs that are roughly 70 percent below German levels.